Bailee Rios Charged With Murder in Chatsworth Bus Crash

Prosecutors charged Bailee Rios with second-degree murder, alleging she drove high on drugs when her SUV slammed into a Metro bus, killing two riders.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Thursday that Bailee Rios, 36, of Simi Valley, has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Metro bus passengers Daniel Castillo, 46, and Gage Weida, 31, along with felony DUI causing injury and misdemeanor reckless driving. If convicted as charged, she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. "She chose to do what she did, and that choice has resulted in deadly and destructive consequences," Hochman said, calling the crash an "absolutely preventable" tragedy. Rios remains held on $4.03 million bail.

Wrong-way DUI crashes are routinely charged as gross vehicular manslaughter or DUI murder under Watson-style theories, so prosecutors filing straight second-degree murder counts stands out. Hochman framed the upgrade around choice: Rios allegedly got behind the wheel while impaired, drove the wrong way down De Soto Avenue at high speed, and ran a red light before broadsiding the Line 166 bus. The murder counts carry the maximum of life with the possibility of parole rather than a lower manslaughter range, and the complaint adds great-bodily-injury allegations that stiffen the DUI count. Prosecutors are also reviewing her prior record, including Ventura County convictions for drug possession in 2016 and driving on a suspended license in 2022, per KTLA5 reporting cited by mynewsla.com.

Hochman said Rios had drugs in her system at the time of the crash and that narcotics were found in her SUV, though he declined to specify the type, calling them "hard drugs" while a full chemical evaluation is underway. FOX 11 Los Angeles, citing sources, reports that suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia were recovered among her belongings — a detail that remains single-source until lab testing confirms the composition. Police say the impact fully ejected one passenger and partially ejected a second, and security camera video published by NBC Los Angeles shows the SUV traveling south in northbound lanes, nearly striking another car before slamming into the bus's side and ending up partially inside it.

The medical examiner identified Daniel Castillo, 46, who died on the bus, and Gage Weida, 31, who was thrown from it and died on the street nearby. Castillo's daughter Johaunna told Eyewitness News her father was "truly an amazing person" who brought laughter into every room, a devoted Dodgers, Cowboys and Lakers fan who would give anyone the shirt off his back. Weida was on his way to work; his family had planned to come to Los Angeles this weekend for his birthday and will now plan a funeral instead, the DA said. Six other passengers were transported with non-life-threatening injuries.

The case is entangled with a second disaster: an NBC4 helicopter covering the bus crash went down blocks away shortly before 7 p.m. Hochman said a federal investigation into that crash is ongoing and prosecutors will consider whether any tie-in to the Rios case warrants additional charges once it concludes — or none if there is not. A community vigil for all five victims was scheduled Thursday evening at St. John Eudes Church in Chatsworth, eight blocks from the helicopter impact site.

Rios's arraignment was pushed to Friday at Los Angeles County Superior Court in San Fernando after a medical event kept her from a Thursday court appearance; she had been treated at a hospital for her own crash injuries before being booked. Metro initially reported she had died, a claim later found to be unfounded. Prosecutors are awaiting toxicology results and the finished drug analysis, and online court records had not listed an attorney for Rios as of Thursday, with the public defender's office not immediately confirming representation, the Associated Press reports via ABC11. Witnesses with dashcam footage from De Soto and Nordhoff are asked to call LAPD's Valley Traffic Division.