SAN JOSE — Investigators have concluded {that a} driver who died after a November wreck lied when he claimed to be a carjacking sufferer, presumably to keep away from legal responsibility for the hit-and-run crash, in response to the San Jose Police Division.
No driver was current when officers have been referred to as to the aftermath of a Nov. 22 night collision by which a 1987 Toyota Odyssey RV hit a number of unoccupied parked vehicles on Summerside Drive close to Coyote Creek, police mentioned.
Two days later, visitors detectives have been alerted to a report from a neighborhood hospital by which a person claimed that he owned the RV and misplaced it to a violent carjacker who inflicted “head and chest accidents” on him, police mentioned.
The person died Dec. 14. He has been recognized by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Workplace as 65-year-old Daniel Martinez, and didn’t have a listed metropolis of residence.
Police mentioned the coroner’s workplace found proof throughout its dying investigation suggesting that the person was not a carjacking sufferer as he claimed. Proof was submitted to the county Crime Lab — run by the district legal professional’s workplace — which confirmed final Thursday that matched the wreck website and indicated the person was driving the RV when it crashed, not his purported carjacker.
In consequence, the deadly crash is being categorized because the forty first visitors dying of 2025, police mentioned.
Anybody with data for investigators can contact SJPD Visitors Detective Rachel Bowen at 408-277-4654 or by electronic mail 4461@sanjoseca.gov. Suggestions can be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.

