Mariah Natividad, a Twentynine Palms Marine who pleaded guilty in April to a DUI crash that killed a prominent Twentynine Palms dentist and his wife, was sentenced to eight years in state prison Wednesday. Natividad, 23, was a lance corporal with the Exercise Support Division on the Combat Center in May 2015 when she rear-ended a pick-up truck traveling eastbound on Highway 62 near Juniper Road in Joshua Tree. The impact sent the truck into the desert where it rolled over several times. Inside the truck were Dr. Lonnie Tiner, 80, and his wife, Patricia, 75. The Tiners died 10 minutes apart the next day at Desert Hospital in Palm Springs. A large number of family members were present at the sentencing hearing in a Joshua Tree courtroom to give victim impact statements. Judge Bert Swift sentenced Mariah Natividad to six years in state prison for the first count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and two years for the second count, to be served consecutively.
