Woman Convicted in Death of Highlands High School Grad

A Fremont woman was convicted Thursday of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and two counts of reckless driving for ramming into a tow truck while she was under the influence of drugs and killing a 22-year-old man on a freeway shoulder in Fremont in 2014.

Melissa Ho, 25, who had been free on $75,000 bail, was immediately remanded into custody by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Tara Desautels after jurors announced their verdict following only a half-day of
deliberations.

Ho, who has glasses and a ponytail and was dressed in black pants and a black jacket, showed little emotion when the verdict was announced but Angel Parker, the mother of the victim William Sampson, cried tears of joy.

Parker, 40, said outside of court, "This is never going to bring my son home, but I'm glad she won't be on the street and won't kill anyone else."

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Sampson, who played football and basketball at Highlands High School in the Sacramento area, had been visiting friends in the Fremont area and had been scheduled to take a bus back to the Sacramento area on Aug. 16, 2014, but delayed his trip because he wanted to help a friend change a tire on his car, Parker said.
"That's the kind of kid he was," Parker said.

The crash occurred at 12:13 p.m. on Aug. 16, 2014. Sampson, who was accompanied by a tow truck driver, was on a shoulder of Interstate Highway 880 in Fremont to help his friend when Ho plowed into Sampson and the
tow truck driver, according to Parker.

Sampson was killed and the tow truck driver was severely injured but survived.

Prosecutor Angela Backers told jurors that a urine test showed that Ho, a recovering heroin addict, had cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamine and marijuana in her system.

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But Ho's defense attorney Daniel Horowitz said Ho "was not under the influence of any drugs at the time she was admitted to the hospital" shortly after the accident.

Horowitz admitted that there's evidence that Ho took drugs at some point before the crash but he told jurors "that doesn't mean that the drugs caused the accident."

Horowitz also said it was "outrageous" for Backers to suggest that Ho wasn't remorseful for crashing into Sampson and killing him.

Horowitz said Ho ran up to Mr. Sampson and tried to help him and then curled up in the fetal position and sobbed after he died.

"That is somebody who does care about what she did," Horowitz said.

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Ho faces up to six years when she's sentenced by Desautels on March 13.

Parker said she's upset that authorities never conducted a blood test on Ho to show the quantity of drugs or alcohol in her system at the time of her crash because she has a previous conviction for driving under the
influence and could have faced a longer sentence.

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock