Alerted by more than a dozen 911 calls, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers were on the lookout for a northbound driver in the southbound lane of Highway 101 around 5:15 a.m., on Sept. 8, 2024.
One caller described the driver—later identified as Santa Maria resident Kendra Lynn Cordova—as weaving between oncoming cars at 90 miles per hour near Los Alamos, according to Santa Barbara County Superior Court documents.
“Cordova sped down Highway 101 in the wrong direction for approximately 14 miles, despite headlights approaching her,” CHP Officer Jason Traughber wrote in his declaration to the court.
“Approximately 15 witnesses called to report Cordova driving the wrong way on the 101, … just prior to crashing,” he continued, “and killing Alma Lazaro.”
Traughber was among the first officers to arrive at the aftermath of a fatal collision between Cordova’s gray Mazda and a white Chevrolet pickup truck near Union Valley Parkway in Orcutt. One passenger of the truck, Lazaro, was declared dead at the scene.
After more than a year of pre-trial court proceedings, Cordova pled guilty to second degree murder earlier this summer.
Her sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 4 in Santa Maria Superior Court. She faces a minimum of 15 years to life in state prison, according to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office.
“It’s [a] horrible instance of a purely preventable and absolutely senseless crime,” District Attorney John Savrnoch told the Sun. “She initially pled not guilty. … We were not coming off of the charge on that, from the moment that we went to the scene, communicated with CHP, and got the facts of that case.”
While preliminary court hearings began in April 2025, Cordova—whose blood alcohol level law enforcement determined was .26 percent the morning of the crash—pled guilty in June 2026.
If the case had gone to trial, the prosecution was prepared to argue that she committed a “Watson murder,” while citing a “pre-drinking intent to drive.” A Watson murder comes from the 1981 California case People v. Watson that set the precedent for a charge of second degree murder when “the facts surrounding a vehicular homicide support a finding of implied malice,” according to FindLaw.
“California courts have long recognized that a traffic fatality by a grossly intoxicated motorist may support a conviction for second degree murder,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Madison Whitmore wrote in court docs.
Within a few days following Lazaro’s death, District Attorney’s Office Investigator Commander Michael Huffman obtained a search warrant that granted him video surveillance footage from Cordova’s former place of work, the 1880 Union Hotel in Los Alamos.
On Sept. 7, 2024, Cordova worked a late bartending shift during a wedding celebration at the venue, between about 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Video surveillance showed that she drank a glass of vodka as soon as she arrived for work and poured additional drinks—including Champagne and shots of liquor—for herself throughout the night.
According to additional obtained surveillance from a neighboring business, The Maker’s Son, Cordova walked to her vehicle around 4:30 a.m., while “swaying and having difficulty standing,” about an hour before the crash and her arrest.
This article appears in July 23 – July 30, 2026.
