Former Texas Sheriff’s Corporal charged with murder in deadly hit-and-run
October 2, 2023
RIVERSIDE – A former Bexar County (Texas) sheriff’s correctional corporal has been charged in the death of a Lake Elsinore man on Interstate 215 in Riverside this summer.
Giovanni Ceja, DOB: 06-08-1992, entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment today, at the Riverside Hall of Justice. His next court date is scheduled for January 30, 2024.
Ceja is accused of driving while intoxicated, running his vehicle into both the victim and the victim’s disabled truck, then driving away. The crash occurred on the southbound shoulder of the freeway, just north of La Cadena Drive, early in the morning of Aug. 7.Gilberto Sotelo, 38, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A California Highway Patrol investigation later identified Ceja as the driver responsible for the collision, and Ceja was arrested by his law enforcement agency in San Antonio, Texas on Aug. 14. He was extradited by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on Aug. 27.
Ceja has been charged by the DA’s Office with second-degree murder and hit-and-run involving death.
The case, RIF2303748, is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Melanie Deutsch of the DA’s Office Major Crimes Unit, Vehicular Homicide Division.
