Judge reinstates bail for man accused of abandoning son

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – A judge begrudgingly reinstated bail Wednesday for a man
accused of abandoning his 4-year-old son following a freeway crash near the
Midway District, leaving the child bleeding on a roadside with injuries that
proved fatal.

Angelo Fabiani, 40, also known as Angelo Fabiani Arroyo, failed to show
up Tuesday for arraignment in Superior Court, prompting Judge Robert F. O'Neill
to issue — but hold — a warrant for the defendant's arrest if he did not
appear today.

Defense attorney Allen Bloom told another judge today that Fabiani —
under stress due to the loss of his son — made it to the steps of the
courthouse Tuesday before collapsing and turning around. Bloom said he found
Fabiani on Tuesday night at home.

Judge Timothy Walsh said he was bothered that despite the loss of
his son, the focus seems to be on the defendant, who's out of custody on
$500,000 bail.

“Everything's about him,” the judge said about Fabiani, who pleaded
not guilty to charges of child endangerment and hit-and-and-run with serious
injury or death.

Walsh said that if Deputy District Attorney Marisa Di Tillio would have
pushed to have the defendant remanded back into custody, he would have done it.
Bloom said Fabiani — who faces up to seven years in prison if convicted
— had made all of his other court appearances. The defendant is being
treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, his attorney said.

“It's enormously difficult for him,” Bloom told the judge.

A trial date was set for March 17.

Fabiani was on probation for a drunken driving conviction at the time of
the June 2 crash on Interstate 5 near Rosecrans Street. His son, Valentino
Fabiani Arroyo, was declared brain-dead at Rady Children's Hospital eight days
later.

San Diego County Deputy Medical Examiner Jacquelyn Morhaine testified at
a preliminary hearing last month that the child suffered a skull fracture and
brain injuries during the crash and subsequent fall to the concrete below.

The boy was strapped in a child-safety seat in a 2004 Nissan Titan that
veered off southbound Interstate 5 about 8 p.m. The truck, which was hauling a
small water-craft trailer, careened down an ice plant-covered embankment,
slammed into a palm tree, toppled onto its passenger side and came to rest
perched atop a concrete retaining wall above Jefferson Street.

The defendant got out of the vehicle and tried in vain to pull out the
child, according to witnesses. He then re-entered the damaged pickup and freed
the youngster, but in doing so caused the child to fall about eight feet onto a
concrete sidewalk below, according to prosecutors.

The defendant eluded capture for two days before being arrested in his
hometown of Imperial Beach.