Monique Muñoz, innocent victim killed in high-speed crash, honored with memorial sign in West LA

WEST LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A memorial sign was unveiled Monday at the West Los Angeles intersection where a woman was killed when the teenage son of a multimillionaire businessman ran a red light in a Lamborghini SUV and slammed into her car at nearly 100 mph.

Monique Muñoz was killed Feb. 17, 2021, at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Overland Avenue when her car was struck by the high-end vehicle driven by the then-17-year-old son of James Khuri, described by Forbes as a multimillionaire who owns several real estate firms, manufacturing companies and an e-commerce business.

The teen was ordered in 2021 to serve seven to nine months in a juvenile camp after admitting a Juvenile Court petition charging him with vehicular manslaughter.

Muñoz’s family reached an $18.85 million settlement of their lawsuit against the teen’s parents in 2022.

The Department of Transportation describes its Roadside Memorial Sign program as a reminder to drivers to use caution while driving and to raise awareness of traffic-related fatalities.

Attorneys said Muñoz, 32, was heading home to Hawthorne from her job at UCLA Health in Los Angeles and was attempting to make a left turn when the teen slammed into her vehicle.

During a juvenile court hearing for the teen in 2021, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Daniel Whitmore, who analyzed the event data recorder from the Lamborghini SUV after the crash, testified that the vehicle’s speed was recorded at 86 mph five seconds before the impact, with the driver’s foot “completely on the gas pedal 100%” and the vehicle’s speed reaching 106 mph less than two seconds before the collision.

The officer said the data then showed the Lamborghini’s driver applying the vehicle’s brakes, with the SUV moving somewhere between 77 and 92 mph when it collided with Muñoz’s Lexus

Authorities said the teen had been stopped by Beverly Hills police in October 2020 and November 2020 — with body-worn video from the two stops indicating that he was cited first for driving 72 mph in a 35-mph zone and then cited for making an “unsafe start” by accelerating very fast, with that officer deciding to impound the vehicle.

In both instances, the officers noted that the teen was supposed to be driving with someone who was at least 25 under the rules of a learner’s permit.

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