VISTA – A man accused of being drunk when he lost control of his pickup truck on Highway 76 in Bonsall and crashed into a bicyclist, leaving the victim without the use of his legs, was ordered Thursday to stand trial.

Gene Jennett, 46, of Vista, is charged with driving under the influence causing injury and having a blood-alcohol level of .18.


Hermes Castro, 26, testified from a wheelchair that he was riding from his Oceanside home to work in Fallbrook on Sept. 1 when he was struck by Jennett's pickup truck.
“I saw a chrome grill and a green hood coming at me,” Hermes said. “I tried to avoid it, but it was too fast. I lowered my shoulder and closed my eyes. That was the last thing I remember before waking up on the ground.

“I was just amazed that I was still breathing. I couldn't feel from the waist down from that moment on.”

Dennis Delgado, one of two Marines in a nearby car, testified that the pickup driven by Jennett was on the right shoulder of the opposite lanes when he spotted it.

“I noticed a dust cloud,” Delgado said. “It quickly got my attention. I saw a green truck come out of the cloud. It fish-tailed.”

The Marine said he could hear the screeching of tires, so he “stood” on his own brakes.

“(The defendant) hit the person on the bike dead-on,” Delgado said.

The truck continued off the road through a stack of hay bales and into a parking lot, where it started a chain reaction collision that damaged three other vehicles, he said.

Castro had two broken legs and blood all over him, he said.

Delgado's passenger, David James, said the victim “was a horrific sight” because of the blood and his injuries.

James said he followed his Marine training and talked to Castro to keep him alert until paramedics arrived.

Both men identified the defendant as the driver of the pickup.

Castro said he spent a month in the hospital.

“I'm not able to walk,” said the victim, who is married but has no children. “I was a real active person so all that has stopped.”

He said he was hoping to return to work by mid-December. Following the one-hour preliminary hearing, Vista Superior Court Judge Aaron Katz scheduled a Jan. 18 trial date for Jennett.

Deputy District Attorney Claudia Grasso said Jennett faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted.


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