(FOX 5/KUSI) — Two years ago, the then 16-year-old Landis Hooper faced death, no one knew if she would be able to walk or even talk again, let alone graduate from high school.
The Vista Murrieta High School senior suffered a severe global traumatic brain injury in a crash that killed her friend, 17-year-old Gia Rizzo, just hours after they had celebrated Landis’s older brother Gavin’s high school graduation.
Rizzo was also Gavin’s girlfriend. Landis was in the backseat of Gavin’s truck when it was T-boned by a distracted and impaired driver at an intersection of Keller Road and Winchester in Murrieta. Gavin was injured but has since recovered. Landis’s injuries were life-altering. CONTINUE