Green pleads guilty to vehicular manslaughter in 2011 Ramona death

By Neal Putnam

A Ramona man pleaded guilty March 13 to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the 2011 death of one passenger in his car.

Harold Lee Green Jr., 50, also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and causing great bodily injury to another passenger in the same incident that killed Mark Andrew Jones, 52, of Ramona on Nov. 12, 2011.

“The deal is he’ll do a year in jail with six years and eight months (suspended),” said Paul Pfingst, Green’s attorney, after the sentencing.

Deputy District Attorney Andrew Aguilar said Green may be placed on probation and the maximum sentence is six years and eight months in prison. Sentencing was set for April 17 in El Cajon Superior Court.

Judge John Thompson dismissed a duplicate charge after Green pleaded guilty to the other two counts. He remains free on his own recognizance on condition he abstains from alcohol and does not drive.

Green had been facing an April 4 trial. The other passenger who was injured was Michael McComack, 56. Green was also injured.

Deputy District Attorney Andrew Aguilar said Green’s blood/alcohol level after the crash was .24, which is three times the legal limit.

Green was driving a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda southbound on Ashley Road from Telford Lane at a high rate of speed and he apparently tried to turn, causing the vehicle to hit a street sign and then a retaining wall, according to court records. Jones was ejected from the vehicle as it rolled over.