A Tijuana judge sentenced Nailea Salas Fernández to 21 years and eight months in prison on Friday, May 29, for a drunk driving crash near the San Ysidro border crossing that killed two people. Judge Juan José Chávez Montes handed down the sentence after finding Salas Fernández guilty of homicide.
The crash occurred near the San Ysidro port of entry, one of the busiest land border crossings in the world and a daily transit point for thousands of commuters traveling between Tijuana and San Diego. The specific date of the crash was not disclosed in the court’s announcement.
A Rare Lengthy Sentence in Tijuana DUI Cases
The conviction stands out in a city where fatal DUI crashes are common but lengthy prison sentences remain unusual. Under Mexico’s penal code, drivers who cause deaths while intoxicated can face homicide charges rather than lesser vehicular manslaughter offenses. That legal framework allows prosecutors to seek sentences measured in decades rather than years.
Baja California’s criminal justice system operates under an oral adversarial trial model, which Mexico adopted nationwide over the past decade. The system requires judges to hear live testimony and evaluate evidence in open court before issuing verdicts. Judge Chávez Montes delivered both the guilty verdict and the sentence in this case.
Border Region Sees Frequent DUI Fatalities
Tijuana records hundreds of traffic fatalities each year, and alcohol is a factor in a significant share of them. The city’s proximity to the U.S. border creates a cross-border nightlife culture that draws visitors from both sides. Roads near the San Ysidro crossing carry heavy traffic at all hours, with vehicles merging between port of entry lanes and city streets.
The 21-year sentence is among the longest handed down for a DUI-related homicide in the Tijuana area in recent memory. By contrast, DUI cases on the U.S. side of the border sometimes result in far lighter penalties. In San Diego County, a driver who killed a 65-year-old woman in a 2023 DUI crash received probation and work furlough in March 2025.
For anyone driving in Baja California, the case is a clear example of how Mexican law treats fatal impaired driving: as homicide, with prison terms that can exceed two decades. Salas Fernández will serve her sentence in a Baja California state facility. The names of the two victims were not released in the initial reporting by Zeta Tijuana.