A fatal carjacking from June of last year has left the teenager responsible for the death of Navy sailor Eddie Foster in state prison, serving a sentence of 15 years to life.
The driver, then 18-year-old Ricardo Vazquez-Gongora, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to prison on Oct. 11.
It’s closure but won’t change the difficult road ahead for the Foster family.
Police Chief Rick Martinez
“It’s closure but won’t change the difficult road ahead for the Foster family,” said Coronado Police Chief Rick Martinez.
In the early morning of June 11, 2023, the Coronado Police Department received a call of a car driving on Orange Avenue with a man on the hood of the car yelling.
A short time later, they received a call that there was a collision of a vehicle with someone, later identified as Foster, on the hood of the car.
Vazquez-Gongora and the passenger were seen running away from the scene and were found later on the bridge access road.
Last year’s statement from the Coronado Police Department said that officers located the vehicle facing eastbound in the westbound lanes of the Coronado Bridge where it collided with the concrete toll structure.
The pair stole the vehicle and Foster had jumped on the hood of the car to stop them. Vazquez-Gongora was arrested for a stolen vehicle, felony hit-and-run, murder and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Vazquez-Gongora pleaded guilty on May 3 of this year.
Foster was 32 at the time, and a father of four.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found Foster injured lying in the next lane.
They transported him to the hospital, but his injuries proved fatal, according to the statement.
“The reckless actions of Mr. Vazquez-Gongora have taken the life of Eddie Foster, a hard-working Naval service member in our community, and orphaned his four children,” Martinez said at the time. “Mr. Vazquez-Gongora’s disregard for human life will forever impact the Foster family, and a lengthy prison sentence will never bring back the father of those four children.”
