VISTA — A judge has set a trial date in a criminal case stemming from a traffic collision that killed a 12-year-old girl in Encinitas.
Emery Chalekian was a student at Park Dale Lane Elementary School who enjoyed baking with her father, John, at any time of day, whenever the mood struck.
On April 25, 2025, Emery was crossing Encinitas Boulevard in a marked crosswalk when she was fatally struck by a Nissan Xterra, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
Eddie Sengendo, 44, has been charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in connection with the incident. His trial is set to begin May 11, with a readiness conference scheduled for April 14.
The Feb. 23 hearing came after Sengendo’s legal team filed a mitigation packet — a collection of letters in his support — which is typically submitted prior to sentencing rather than before trial.
Kristin Marshall, a prosecutor with the District Attorney’s Office, said during a Jan. 13 hearing that the filing was “highly unusual.”
In response, statements in aggravation were submitted on behalf of the Chalekian family and others describing the impact of Emery’s death.
Jay Temple, Sengendo’s attorney, argued in court that a sentence near the maximum one-year jail term would be “disproportionate.”
Prosecutors filed documents listing three recent local cases with similar circumstances in which jail time was imposed. Marshall said the examples showed “it is not out of the norm” for courts to sentence defendants to custody in comparable circumstances.
Temple countered that the prosecution did not provide context to show whether those cases were typical or outliers.
The courtroom was filled with supporters of both Sengendo and the Chalekian family.
More than a dozen people attended on Sengendo’s behalf. After the hearing, they told The Coast News that he is a devoted family man who means a great deal to the community.
As a child, Sengendo fled Uganda and became a refugee in Kenya before his family was granted political asylum in San Diego, according to previous reporting by The San Diego Union-Tribune. He was introduced to tennis at Father Joe’s Village and later became a coach.
Across the aisle and along the back wall of the courtroom, many supporters of Emery wore yellow shirts, held signs and expressed solidarity with her family.
“Eddie took our daughter from us, which is just an awful thing to even contemplate — so much loss for me, my family, my son, the community,” John Chalekian told The Coast News after the hearing. “Now he finds it appropriate to drag the same affected group through a prolonged living loss with these court proceedings to benefit nobody other than himself.”
