For months after Yui was killed, the only contact our family had with the Riverside County DA's office was through victim services. What we experienced was a rotating cast of representatives, sporadic and then nonexistent communication, and basic failures that compounded our grief. One representative called looking for the husband of "Mrs. Cosswall," listed the wrong case number, and when we emailed back to say they might have the wrong person, responded that no, this was our case. When Christian Moreland was arrested and a court date was set, no one told us. We found out by searching public records ourselves, weeks later.
None of that was malicious. But victim services exists because the bar is higher for victims and families of crime victims, and even mediocre support in that context can easily feel like indifference. They induced the exact confusion, fear, and frustration that they are there to mitigate. The message we internalized was: this office does not care about Yui's case.
We were wrong about that. The smoke was in victim services, not in the DA's office as a whole.
Because of the letters that so many of you wrote. Because of the support from Yui's community, from people who never met her reaching out, from friends and family around the world refusing to let this be swept aside. DA Mike Hestrin agreed to meet with us. He told us directly that his office had received an overwhelming number of letters from Yui's community. That meeting changed everything. Hestrin explained that his office had wanted to pursue a felony charge. He had brought in two outside subject matter experts to independently review the case. Both reached the same conclusion: they could bring it as a felony, but it would not survive a challenge. California law, as written, does not provide the statutory language or precedent to establish that extreme sleep deprivation qualifies as gross negligence under PC 192(c)(1).
Then he said something that was genuinely jarring: even if Christian had been texting while driving instead of falling asleep, it would still be a misdemeanor. The first thing any of us learn behind the wheel is to keep our eyes on the road. Texting while driving is a blatant disregard for that most basic rule. When someone is texting and driving and kills another person, that is not an accident. That is gross negligence that led to manslaughter. But California law does not treat it that way.
Of course we wanted to hear that they were filing a felony. That is still what should happen. But hearing that they tried, that they brought in experts, that they were frustrated by the same gap we were, was what we had needed all along. The reality has not changed: killing someone through extreme sleep deprivation should not be a misdemeanor. But what we learned was that the people we thought were the problem were actually on our side. What we mistook for the battleground turned out to be our allies. The real fight is with the law itself.
We are grateful to DA Hestrin for taking the time to meet, for walking us through every part of their review, and for his immediate concern when he heard about our experience with victim services. He did not have to do any of that. He chose to, and it mattered.
At the end of the day, the charging outcome is not what we wanted. But knowing it was not because his office did not care or did not try is what allowed us to move forward. And for our children, Lilly and Wesley, knowing that everything that could be done was done means they will never have to wonder. That matters more than anything.
