Huntington Beach police arrest man for murder after fatal April crash that sent woman's car into wetlands

Huntington Beach police have arrested a man in connection with a fatal DUI crash that killed a 53-year-old woman in April after her car veered into the marshlands on the side of Pacific Coast Highway. 

In a news release, police said that 24-year-old Oceanside resident Lukas McHargue was arrested for murder for the deadly crash that happened back on April 15. 

"McHargue rear-ended Lewis on PCH south of Warner Ave.," the release said. "The impact sent her vehicle off the roadway and into the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, where it overturned and became submerged, trapping her inside."

Paramedics and firefighters extracted Lewis from the vehicle and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she later succumbed to her injuries. She has since been remembered by friends and loved ones, who knew her as "Candy Corn," as someone "unimaginably loving and caring."

"Investigators determined McHargue had been driving more than 100 mph shortly before the crash, at more than double the posted speed limit," the release said.

Police said that evidence showed he had consumed both alcohol and marijuana, and that at the time of the crash, he was more than double the legal alcohol limit."

McHargue was arrested on Wednesday in Oceanside and taken into custody, police said. He was transported to the Orange County Jail and remains behind bars without bail. The arrest was conducted by Huntington Beach PD's Special Investigation Bureau and Major Accident Investigation Team.

Investigators said that McHargue had been "repeatedly warned" that impaired driving could kill someone, and that he "had personally acknowledged that risk."

According to the release, after the Orange County District Attorney's Office reviewed the case, they filed one count of murder against McHargue. In California, a DUI-related death can be charged as murder if there is evidence that the driver had knowledge that impaired driving is dangerous to human life, but consciously disregarded that danger.

"Driving in excess of 100 mph, at more than double the posted speed limit & with an alcohol level more than double the legal limit is not an accident," said a statement from Huntington Beach Police Chief Eric Parra. "This was a series of reckless choices that ended an innocent woman's life."

Anyone who knows more was asked to contact HBPD Traffic Investigator Vishal Rattanchandani at 714-536-5231.