Driver sentenced to 9 years, 8 months for DUI crash that killed cyclist
Vanessa Rose Noblitt. Graphic courtesy of the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said the sentence is the maximum allowed for the crimes she admitted
– A woman who pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the 2024 hit-and-run death of 86-year-old cyclist Saul Goldberg was sentenced Tuesday to nine years and eight months in state prison, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
Superior Court Judge Rita Federman sentenced Vanessa Rose Noblitt, 45, and remanded her to the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, according to the district attorney’s office.
Noblitt pleaded guilty on Sept. 15 to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent or more causing injury, and hit and run. She admitted that her blood alcohol concentration was .15 percent or higher, that she inflicted great bodily injury on each victim, and that the victim was particularly vulnerable. Her conviction for DUI causing great bodily injury is a strike offense under California’s Three Strikes Law, according to prosecutors.
Around noon on July 23, 2024, Noblitt was driving south on South Higuera Street in San Luis Obispo when she drifted into the bike lane and struck Goldberg, of Avila Beach, as he rode with his friend Martin Suits, according to the district attorney’s office. Suits suffered a concussion and other injuries, and Goldberg died from his injuries several days later. Noblitt left the scene and was arrested after she struck a parked car in a nearby mobile home park. Her blood alcohol concentration was .31 percent, nearly four times the legal limit, according to prosecutors.
Goldberg and his wife, Carol, had been married for 64 years and were planning to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary in Australia that December.
In a victim impact statement read at sentencing, Carol Goldberg said, “Through a reckless and selfish act, Vanessa Noblitt took the life not only of my husband, but also of a caring and generous father and grandfather.”
“Saul Goldberg should have finished his bike ride that day and gone home to the family who loved him,” District Attorney Dan Dow said. “Instead, a choice to drive with a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit took him from his wife of 64 years, his children, and his grandchildren, and left his friend injured on the side of the road.”
“To everyone in our community: the decision to drive impaired is always avoidable. Please plan ahead for a sober ride,” Dow said.
Prosecutors said they consulted with Suits and the Goldberg family before the plea agreement. A restitution status hearing is set for Jan. 12.
The case was investigated by the San Luis Obispo Police Department and prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Delaney Henretty.
For more information, read the full press release.
