(L.A.) Ashley Wells, 23, Died in a Vehicle

Case Number: 2020-06076

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 23-year-old Black female that occurred in a vehicle.

The coroner’s office has identified the woman as Ashley Wells.

Manner of Death: Accident

Cause of Death: Multiple Traumatic Injuries

RIP ASHLEY WELLS (June 28, 1997 – July 8, 2020)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Wednesday at 12:40 a.m.

The decedent was a Redondo Union High School graduate who was a passenger of off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy Daniel Manuel Auner.

Auner was driving 116 mph when his Dodge Charger struck the center median, and the vehicle was traveling at least 71 mph when it struck a traffic pole at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and 190th Street.

Two other young women in the vehicle suffered multiple injuries that resulted in one of them being hospitalized for 22 days and the other being hospitalized for 10 days.

In 2023, Auner would plead no contest to charges of one count each of voluntary manslaughter and gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.