ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (KGUN) — More than five years after a deadly crash in Oro Valley took the lives of two young adults, Jana Giron was sentenced to 15 years in prison last month.
Caitlin Festerling and Paul Garcia were killed in November 2019 when prosecutors say Giron rear-ended their car while distracted by her phone, pushing them into oncoming traffic before being hit again. The crash happened along Shannon Road, near Lambert Lane.
“It was a typical Wednesday,” Caitlin’s mother, Julie Festerling, said. “We got up in the morning, said our goodbyes for the day, not knowing that they would be goodbyes forever.”
The crash devastated their families. Caitlin was 21, the oldest of five siblings. Paul was 22, hoping to start a business one day.
“Caitlin was just a hardworking young lady,” Festerling said. “She cared about other people. She just was that ray of sunshine.”
“He had the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known,” Paul’s mother, Deborah Garcia, said. “He loved everyone. He was so into fairness and treating everyone the right way and doing the right thing.”
Deborah Garcia remembers the confusion and disbelief the night of the crash.
“I called my daughter and said, ‘I think your brother’s dead…and I think Caitlin’s dead too'," she said.
The case took years to come to trial. Prosecutors said the investigation was complicated and required extensive evidence.
“Because it involved distracted driving, they had to get the information regarding cell phone records and get the data from the actual cell phone company,” Pima County prosecutor Rachel Stiles said. “Our office consulted independent experts to review that…We had to do our due diligence to make sure we weren’t pursuing something and bringing such serious charges against someone until we knew that we actually had the evidence and that the law matched it.”
Giron’s first trial ended in a hung jury on the most serious charges, but jurors convicted her of evidence tampering for deleting text messages. In the second trial, she was found guilty of negligent homicide.
During sentencing, Giron spoke to the families.
“As a mother myself, my heart aches for your loss and I’m truly sorry for any pain you have endured,” she said.
But the apology did little to ease their grief.
“The first thing I did after I left that trial is I randomly asked people, ‘If you were in an accident and you weren’t hurt, what would be the first thing you would do?’” Deborah Garcia said. “And every single person said, ‘I would check to see if anybody else was hurt.’ And she never even tried.”
Julie Festerling turned her pain into a mission. She founded a nonprofit called 'Phones Down, Just Drive' to help educate people about distracted driving.
“There’s no phone call to heaven,” she said. “We lost all that.”
Rachel Stiles said distracted driving continues to pose a serious threat on Arizona roads.
“I hope people just recognize the great responsibility that drivers have when they are out on the roads,” she said. “Things can happen in just a moment.”
Festerling says the hardest part is knowing it could have been prevented.
“We think it won’t happen to us,” she said. “And then there’s that moment of distraction that turns into a lifetime of regret.”
Giron was sentenced on June 16. She has 20 days from that date to file an appeal.
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Kenny Darr is a reporter for KGUN 9. He joined the team in January 2023. Before arriving in Arizona he was an Anchor and Reporter at KADN in Lafayette, LA. Share your story ideas with Kenny by emailing kenny.darr@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
