Crime & Safety

Driver Who Killed RSM Woman Turns Self in For Murder—In NY

William Carroll drove the wrong way down Santa Margarita Parkway and killed Ana Martinez. He fled to New York after recovering from his injuries.

He's behind bars in New York, but when he will be returned to Orange County is uncertain.

After driving the wrong way in an accident that killed a Rancho Santa Margarita woman and critically injured himself last May, William Joseph Carroll, 47, has turned himself in on second-degree murder charges in Albany, NY, sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock said.

Carroll was suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol when his pickup headed south on the north side of Santa Margarita Parkway in Mission Viejo near Trabuco Hills High, colliding head-on with a minivan. He lived in Mission Viejo at the time.

Ana Martinez, 36, who was driving the minivan, was pronounced dead at the scene. The Rancho Santa Margarita woman—the mother of three children—was reportedly en route to Foothill Ranch to pick up her father after work.

Carroll was not immediately booked due to his injuries, a sheriff's spokesman told the Orange County Register. He said toxicology reports took longer than expected.

According to the paper, Carroll left a suicidal message on a former girlfriend's phone earlier that night saying he was drunk and "going to die tonight."

Orange County Superior Court records show that Carroll pled guilty to drunk driving in 2008 and was arrested for public intoxication, trespassing and resisting arrest in 2011.


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