Crime & Safety
Wrong-Way Driver Appears in Court, Arraignment Deferred to July 28
More than 30 members of victim Ana Luz Barajas' family attended.
Eric Weers, the 29-year-old man who drove in the wrong lane of Highway 17 and killed a 48-year-old mother of three daughters and a son, appeared in Santa Cruz Superior Court Wednesday morning and delayed his arraignment on murder charges.
Weers is being held in Santa Cruz County Jail on $1 million bail.
The hearing before Judge Michael E. Barton lasted only minutes, and Weers, with long black hair, was dressed in a yellow jump suit, indicating he was in protective custody.
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Prosecutor Jason Gill said the penalty for homicide in the case was 15 years to life.
More than 30 grieving family members of Barajas, whose husband died in a car accident in 1997, packed two rows of the courtroom. Barajas was a nurse at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center in Santa Cruz.
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