PITTSBURG — Corrina Rosalez felt a headache coming on as she and her family were driving home Monday evening after a dinner outing, so she asked her three children singing loudly in the back seat to quiet down.
The happy siblings obeyed, allowing their mother to close her eyes and doze off as her partner, Romero Castro, took a shortcut home by turning onto Leland Road, east of John Henry Johnson Park.
The next thing Rosalez remembers is waking up to a living nightmare: the family car wrecked in a crash, excruciating pain over much of her body and Castro lying beside her, still breathing but not stirring. She would later learn he died, as did her 7-year-old daughter.
“I tried tapping his back and saying his name, but he didn’t answer me,” Rosalez said in an interview Thursday. “I was so afraid and worried; I kept yelling my kids’ names over and over, and finally I heard a man say, ‘Ma’am, we’re trying to get help for you.’ “
Firefighters extricated the couple with “jaws of life” equipment, telling a hysterical Rosalez that her children had been airlifted to different hospitals. Then they told her what had happened.
A Chevrolet Camaro traveling well above the speed limit had collided with the family’s Toyota Corolla, sending it spiraling into a tree off John Henry Johnson Parkway, according to Pittsburg police.
The three children — ages 7, 5 and 2 — were ejected from the car. Castro, 28, died at the scene, and second-grader Sela Mataele, 7, died later at a hospital in Walnut Creek.
The Camaro’s driver, 25-year-old Christian Ricardo Vargas, was arrested at the scene and charged with murder and drunken driving on Thursday.
He had been on probation for a previous drunken-driving conviction, and authorities said alcohol was found in his car Monday.
Rosalez, who broke all her ribs and shattered her teeth, remains at the hospital with her 2-year-old son, who broke a leg, and 5-year-old son, who suffered bruises and other scrapes.
Two passengers in Vargas’ car, including a 10-year-old child, also suffered injuries.
Learning of Sela’s death sent a shock wave through Rosalez’s battered body, she said. In the days since, the mother has focused on a single memory of her daughter — not the moments leading up to the crash, nor the dinner at Golden Corral in Concord an hour before, but the start of that morning.
“She’d woken me up before school that day,” Rosalez recalled. “She hugged me and told me, ‘Mommy, I love you so much.’ And that’s all I think about.”
Rosalez’s sister, Christina Aguilar, has started a GoFundMe page to cover funeral and medical expenses, and so far it has raised more than $28,000. (To donate, go to https://bit.ly/3wSvrky).
In an interview, Aguilar said she was at work when she got the call about the crash. She felt a pain in her stomach as she rushed to the hospital, but got it together when she saw Rosalez’s 5-year-old son and told him, “Hi baby, everything is going to be alright.”
She had seen Sela just a few days earlier when they had conducted a business transaction — Aguilar had given her 7-year-old niece a couple of dollars and a warm hug for sweeping Aguilar’s backyard. Sela cared more about the hug, her favorite way of showing love and comfort to the people around her, Aguilar said.
The second-grader enjoyed art, playing with her dolls, riding her bicycle, going to church with cousins, helping out around the house and diving into the occasional bag of Hot Cheetos.
Sela would have turned 8 in June and Rosalez was saving up to get her a camera because the child loved to record videos of her life and share them with friends on YouTube.
“I don’t want people just to think of Sela in the car accident,” Aguilar said. “I want people to remember that she was a beautiful girl and she had a big, beautiful smile.”
Castro, who died Tuesday, was a major part of Sela’s life. He and Rosalez had the 2-year-old son together, and across several years of dating he had become a strong presence with the entire family, giving the other siblings playful nicknames and finding silly jokes to laugh over.
“My son was close to him,” Aguilar said. “They always hung out and played video games and laughed at things together. Romero was really funny; we always got along.”
Rosalez, a Pittsburg native, met Castro through a mutual friend, and the two found themselves dating not long after. She was drawn to Castro’s kindness — he was so attentive to her, she said, and so eager to be there for her kids. They moved in together four years ago.
“He stepped up and took care of them like they were his own,” Rosalez said. “They called him Papi, and they loved him so much.”
Castro had been there when Sela’s school-issued laptop had audio glitches during distance learning one day. Her teacher and other staff members at Heights Elementary in Pittsburg helped the family resolve the problem.
Heights Elementary School Principal Laura Francis remembered how frustrated Sela became as she waited to get the computer working again because she loved school and wanted to share her thoughts with classmates.
With counselors on hand, Francis accompanied Sela’s teacher this week as they announced to her classmates that she had died. Once the initial shock and tears had passed, the children and adults shared their favorite memories of Sela — a confident girl who always had a smile to share and a hug to offer.
“She just endeared herself to you,” Francis said, “because she was so open about who she was.”
Staff writer Nate Gartrell contributed to this report.