Husband of late Tucson journalist to join rally for change in California | Local News

ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (KVOA) – The husband of a late Tucson journalist is heading to California next week to join calls for stricter penalties for California drivers who kill someone while behind the wheel.

Yui Umehara-Garewal, a former Arizona Daily Star copy editor, was killed in a crash in California in December 2024, while traveling with her family. The man accused of causing that crash is being charged with a misdemeanor despite the Garewal family’s push for a felony.

Investigators said the driver responsible for Umehara-Garewal’s death, Christian Moreland, allegedly fell asleep at the wheel before the crash.

Garewal will be taking his wife’s memory with him to California as he joins a rally Thursday, April 23, at the California State Capitol. That event is organized by families who’ve lost loved ones to drivers in California.

“You know it’s unfortunate because this keeps happening, but at the same time too, there is that OK, there’s more of us, we’re not alone, we’re not crazy. This is really that bad,” Garewal told News 4 Tucson.

Allison Lyman said her son Connor was hit and killed on that date last year by a driver going into a parking lot. Lyman, one of the loved ones behind next week’s event, told News 4 Tucson that the driver who killed her son was charged with a misdemeanor.

“He was an incredible person, he was such a gift, he was kind and he was gentle,” Lyman said.

Julia Romanenko’s son Misha also lost his life in 2025. Romanenko said the driver in her son’s case faced felony counts but kept his driver’s license for months.

“My baby was a sunshine from early childhood, he was smiling all the time,” she recalled.

In the case of Garewal’s wife Yui, the Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin told him in a March letter, “The staffing determined we were legally constrained in the charging decision that could be made.”

Hestrin added that based on state law the evidence in the case only supports a misdemeanor – vehicle manslaughter, without gross negligence.

The district attorney went on to write the following:

“A District Attorney, in appropriate cases, should have the discretion to govern whether a case is appropriately charged as a felony or misdemeanor based on the totality of the facts presented, and not be constrained due to gaps in statute language. Unfortunately, California law as written prevents prosecutorial offices from practicing such discretion as it pertains to cases involving vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence.”

Garewal will join Lyman and Romanenko next Thursday to call for stricter laws and accountability for drivers who kill others on California roads.

“Just leaving it as it is, just felt like it was even more ignoring Yui’s memory,” Garewal said.

Garewal told News 4 Tucson he will be at the arraignment for the man charged in his wife’s death, Christian Moreland. That is set for April 30 in Blythe, California.