Overview
- California corrections officials notified the Montalvo family that Noemi (Neomi) Velado is scheduled to leave state prison next month after about two years of a nine-year term.
- Velado was convicted of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and felony hit-and-run and received a nine-year sentence in 2023.
- Jurors concluded she was speeding and texting when she struck 21-year-old bicyclist Benjamin Montalvo near Centennial High School in 2020.
- Inquiries to CDCR returned only a link to Velado’s public case page, and officials have not provided a breakdown of credits; the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office says it has not been told the basis for the early release.
- The Montalvo family calls the decision re-victimizing, is working with victim advocate Moses Castillo, and has launched the Safe Inland Empire safety group; the family also alleges Velado had prior hit-and-run incidents.