LOS ANGELES — A young man has pleaded no contest to murder and DUI charges stemming from a crash in Northridge that killed an off-duty Los Angeles police officer and a man preparing to join the LAPD academy, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

Brian David Olivarez — who was 20 at the time and is now 21 — was sentenced to 16 years and eight months to life in state prison in connection with his plea to two counts of murder and one count of driving under the influence, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Olivarez was charged in connection with the Nov. 4, 2023, crash that killed off-duty Los Angeles Police Department Officer Darrell Cunningham and one of Cunningham’s passengers, Jorge Soriano, and injured two other people.

At a hearing last December in which Olivarez was ordered to stand trial, LAPD Officer Brandon Jeon testified that investigators believed that the 2008 BMW 328i being driven by the defendant westbound on Roscoe Boulevard was traveling between a low of 80 mph and a high of 97 mph on a street with a 40 mph speed limit.

Another LAPD officer, Alexander Martinez, testified that he had warned the defendant about the dangers of speeding and running a red light and told him that he could be charged if he killed someone after seeing him go through a red light about six months before the fatal crash at the same intersection at Roscoe Boulevard and Lindley Avenue.

“He nodded his head in agreement,” the officer testified then, noting that he cited the young man for two violations, including having no driver’s license, after having to drive 60 mph to catch up with him.

A third LAPD officer, Jeffrey Ngo, testified that he concluded that Olivarez — who was unconscious after the crash — was under the influence of alcohol, and said testing was subsequently done for confirmation.

Edgar Martinez, an off-duty San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy who was a passenger in the Infiniti being driven by Cunningham, testified that he didn’t remember the collision, but recalled opening his eyes and noticing emergency lights. He said he heard firefighters using the Jaws of Life to cut open the vehicle and remembered seeing them put a sheet over Cunningham’s head.

He said Soriano was sitting in front of him and was “slumped over unresponsive.”

When asked about his two friends, he said, “They passed away in the vehicle collision.”

The off-duty deputy testified that he suffered 11 injuries, including a broken right femur and a small skull fracture, that required three surgeries and resulted in him being hospitalized for a little over a month and undergoing home care and physical therapy after he was discharged from the hospital.

Angela Lujan, who was dating Olivarez and was a passenger in his vehicle at the time of the crash, testified that she didn’t remember anything about it.

“I just remember realizing that we were in an accident,” she testified, noting later that she had about six surgeries while hospitalized for about two weeks but did not suffer any permanent injuries.

Shortly after the crash, Cunningham’s mother called what happened “very senseless,” noting that it happened at about 1:15 a.m. when there was no traffic.

“What’s the rush? … 1:15 in the morning,” she said.

Soriano’s godmother said hundreds of people have been impacted by one person’s bad decision.