
How come after 3 prior DWI convictions this illegal was not deported now mother and her pregnant daughter lay dead and why wasn’t the illegal deported ?
CONROE — A 27-year-old illegal immigrant with mulitple DWI convictions pleaded guilty this morning to felony murder charges in the death of a mother and daughter in a car accident more than a year ago.
Ignacio Gomez-Gutierrez, of Houston, through an interpreter, also pleaded guilty to two counts of failure to stop and render aid.
The case being heard in Montgomery County’s 9th District Court is the first felony DWI murder case in the county, prosecutors said.
Gomez-Gutierrez is accused of driving with a blood-alcohol content that was three times the legal limit when he plowed into the rear of a car on U.S. 59 near the entrance to Kingwood on March 25, 2007.
The car’s occupants, Maria Ortiz, 49, and her daughter Vaness, 18, who was five months pregnant, were killed instantly.
Gomez-Gutierrez fled from his disabled vehicle after the wreck, investigators said.
With Gomez-Gutierrez facing his fourth drunken driving charge, prosecutors elected to upgrade charges to felony murder instead of second-degree felony intoxicated manslaughter.
State law enables prosecutors to pursue the more serious charge because Gomez-Gutierrez caused a death while committing a felony crime.
Gomez-Gutierrez served time for three prior DWI convictions in 2002, 2004 and 2005 but authorities did not deport him to Mexico.
In 2005, Gomez-Gutierrez was stopped for running a stop sign in Harris County. Officers said that he had a strong alcohol odor and failed a field sobriety test.
He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to a year in county jail. He was released in six months, records showed.
A Montgomery County jury will decide Gomez-Gutierrez’s punishment in the latest case, or he could agree to a plea deal. Opening statements will resume this afternoon.
Gomez-Gutierrez faces up to 99 years in prison on the murder charges and up to five years in prison or a year in jail on the failure to stop and render aid charges.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6070284.html