A repeat DUI offender was sentenced Friday to 135 years to life in state prison for the murder of four people in a crash on Interstate Highway 80 in San Pablo in 2017, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
A jury convicted Fred Lowe, of Sacramento, of seven felonies in connection with the hit-and-run crash. Lowe was traveling at an unsafe speed eastbound on I-80 when his car sideswiped a Nissan rogue west of El Portal Drive, prosecutors said. The crash forced the Nissan Rogue against and over the center divider, where it was hit by two westbound vehicles.
Killed in the crash were Joseph Horn, his father Darryl, Baden Biddle and his father Troy Biddle. Joe Horn’s older brother Jared was the driver of the Nissan Rogue and was only slightly injured. The Biddle Family were relatives of the Horn’s visiting from out of state over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Three additional people were injured in the cars that struck the Nissan Rogue in westbound traffic.
After the fatal crash, Lowe fled the scene and was later found by law enforcement officers, according to prosecutors. Lowe had five prior DUI convictions, and an expert testified that his blood alcohol level at the time of the crash would have been about .24 percent.
