Pajaro business manager ordered to pay $150,000 to family of employee killed at work.

A 2021 death at a concrete pipe business in Pajaro will not go to trial, after the business’s manager agreed to pay restitution to the victim’s family.

A trial had been set for late April.

Kristo Kristich, the manager of Kristich-Monterey Pipe Company in Pajaro, agreed to pay employee Jairo Ramirez Ventura’s family $150,000 in restitution, along with court fees. His jail sentence was also waived, and he will instead serve one year of probation, and must install cameras pointing to the concrete mixer where the worker was killed.

In January 2021, Ramirez Ventura climbed into a concrete mixer to clean the machine. But, according to an investigation by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), the machine’s safety system had been bypassed, which allowed it to turn on while the employee was inside, killing him.

Court records state that Cal/OSHA terminated a criminal investigation against Kristich in 2023. Soon after, an inquiry by the Sacramento Bee into Cal/OSHA and the Pajaro case led to it being reopened. 

Kristich was then charged with causing an employee’s death, a felony. It was later reduced to a misdemeanor, which he pleaded no contest to in January.

In court filings, Kristich’s attorney Gary Harlan Thelander urged Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer J. O’Keefe to dismiss the case, arguing that the prosecution could not prove that Kristich had any knowledge of the safety system’s alteration.

The case will continue in court on June 4 for an update on the restitution status.