Ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer avoids jail for vehicular manslaughter charge

Former Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer accepted a plea deal to avoid jail time for accidentally killing a pedestrian in California last year.Klinghoffer, 45, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence in an Alhambra courtroom on Wednesday, Rolling Stone reported.Klinghoffer — who was facing one year behind bars — was sentenced to a year of informal probation and 60 days of community labor for running over and killing 47-year-old Israel Sanchez with his 2022 GMC Yukon on March 18, 2024, in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra.Sanchez was transported to a local area hospital and declared dead later that day.Officials ruled his cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head. Los Angeles County Judge Rosa Fregoso also sentenced Klinghoffer to complete a driver safety class and pay restitution to Sanchez’s family, which will be determined at a later date, according to Rolling Stone.Following Klinghoffer’s plea, a prosecutor warned him of the dangers of distracted driving and said he could be charged with murder if he killed someone again.Sanchez’s daughter, Ashley Sanchez, was in tears as she read a victim impact statement about how her father was “the heart” of her family.“My father was an extraordinary grandfather to my [children],” the heartbroken daughter told the court, according to Rolling Stone.

“His absence has left an irreversible void in our lives.”After praising her father as an extraordinary cook and painter with a “unique gift for soothing” the ones he loved with his meals and art, she addressed Klinghoffer directly.She told the rocker her father’s death was an “avoidable loss that has shaken my family,” and his irresponsible actions have left her and others with “deep and lasting trauma.”A wrongful death suit filed by Sanchez’s family in July against Klinghoffer alleges the musician was using a cell phone and driving a car with no plates when the accident took p...