Stephen Scarpa Sentenced To 15 Years To Life For Drugged-Driving Crash Which Killed Costa Mesa Fire Captain

SANTA ANA (CBSLA) – A driver who was convicted of being under the influence of drugs when he struck and killed an off-duty Costa Mesa fire captain in Mission Viejo back in 2018 was sentenced Friday morning to 15 years to life in prison.

Stephen Taylor Scarpa, 28, was sentenced in an Orange County Superior courtroom in Santa Ana.

In September, Scarpa was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Costa Mesa Fire Capt. Mike Kreza, a husband and father of three.

Scarpa, a former addiction care center employee, was under the influence of multiple controlled substances on the morning of Nov. 3, 2018, when he drove a van into a bike lane along Alicia Parkway in Mission Viejo, and struck Kreza, who was bicycling.

Kreza, an 18-year veteran of Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue, was left unconscious and suffering from severe head and body trauma. Even after brain surgery, Kreza never regained consciousness and passed away a few days later at Mission Hospital.

Scarpa remained at the scene of the crash, where he was evaluated by a drug recognition expert. Orange County Sheriff's deputies found several prescription medications in his van and arrested him.

Prosecutors said that prior to the crash, Scarpa ingested methamphetamine, fentanyl and "undefined downers."

About six weeks after the collision, in December of 2018, an Irvine doctor named Dzung Ahn Pham was arrested by federal agents on allegations he knowingly prescribed medication to multiple drug addicts, including the gunman who perpetrated the massacre at the Borderline bar in Thousand Oaks in which 12 innocent people were killed.

The Justice Department revealed that one of Pham's patients was Scarpa. Several prescription bottles with Pham's name were found in Scarpa's car.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)