Posted on 01/06/2009 6:00:21 AM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
3 native Mexicans died in wrong-way driving
RALEIGH -- Francisco Martinez's decision to drive drunk and head the wrong way on Raleigh's Inner Beltline ended up costing the lives of three fellow Mexican immigrants headed home on the same road.
On Monday, Martinez, 30, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of felony injury by vehicle. He could have faced 125 years in prison, if given the maximum on all charges, but Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand consolidated the sentences as part of a plea agreement.
All three who died in the May 25 wreck originally came from Mexico -- as did Martinez, who was an illegal immigrant.
Brothers Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez, 26, and Dagoberto Zintzun-Jimenez, 21, of Raleigh, had been in the country since they were children. Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez worked in construction, and Dagoberto Zintzun-Jimenez manned a cash register at a Sears department store for years.
The third victim, Santiago Pascual Tellez, 14, of Knightdale came to the Raleigh area a decade earlier as a 4-year-old. The popular eighth-grader planned on becoming a police officer when he was older, his family said.
Martinez chose to say nothing during the Monday afternoon hearing at the Wake County Courthouse. But he wiped tears from his face several times. He'll face deportation when his prison sentence is finished, no earlier than the latter part of 2021.
Martinez arrived in the country illegally five years ago with his wife and their two daughters, said his attorney, Charles Christopher. Since then, the couple had another child, and Martinez worked as a painter, eventually heading his own crew and frequently pulling six- to seven-day workweeks in order to keep up with the demand for his crew's services.
In advance of a rare day off, Martinez joined some friends at a gathering and began drinking the night before the wreck. He eventually left about 4 a.m. and headed home, Christopher said.
Wrong way on the Beltline
Martinez intended to get on the Outer Beltline near Rock Quarry Road. Instead, he headed up an exit ramp and drove the wrong way on the Inner Beltline, according to Christopher and Wake Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cruden.
A newspaper carrier spotted Martinez's white Chevy work van going the wrong way and called police. Seconds later, a Raleigh police officer also about to get on the Beltline saw him and followed him with emergency lights flashing in an attempt to stop Martinez, Cruden said.
Martinez continued driving the wrong way and slammed into a Lexus with the Zintzun-Jimenez brothers, Santiago and two others inside. Martinez received a broken ankle and had a blood-alcohol content of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 for a person to drive in North Carolina.
"He knew he shouldn't be driving, and he knew he was responsible for the tragedy he caused," Christopher said.
Six hours before the wreck, Martinez was pulled over by a Raleigh police officer, who determined that Martinez's license had expired a few days earlier. The officer did not detect any signs Martinez had been drinking alcohol at that time and released him, Cruden said.
Some of those in the Lexus also had been drinking.
Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez, who was driving the Lexus, had a blood alcohol content of 0.05, underneath the legal limit, while Santiago, the 14-year-old, had enough alcohol his system to register a 0.14, Cruden said. Santiago's family said they weren't aware the teen had been drinking that night.
The deaths of Guillermo and Dagoberto Zintzun-Jimenez hit their family especially hard, marking the second time a loved one had been killed in a traffic accident. In 2005, a brother to the two men died when their car malfunctioned and Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez stopped on the side of Interstate 540. Another vehicle slammed into them, killing 14-year-old Jose.
The driver who killed Jose Jimenez in 2005 had an initial charge of misdemeanor death by vehicle dropped to a conviction of failure to maintain lane control. That stuck in the minds of Estela and Hermaldo Zintzun-Jimenez, who came to court Monday and feared the killer of their remaining two sons wouldn't be punished.
"We blame Mr. Martinez whose fate is in your hands," Estela Zintzun-Jimenez wrote Rand, the judge, in a translated letter that was read in court. "We want justice done for what was done."
Before the hearing, the Pascual and Zintzun-Jimenez families, many members unable to understand the English-language court proceedings, met with prosecutors to discuss Martinez's plea agreement. After Martinez was sentenced, a victims' witness liaison translated what happened, including the 13-year sentence Martinez got for the deaths of three people.
"A todo? [For everything?]," Estela Zintzun-Jimenez asked.
She wiped tears away from her face as she was told yes, that the prison sentence was for all three deaths.
Saw a piece on 60 minutes last week. Apparently prosecutors are pushing more and more murder charges when alcohol is involved. The guy who ran head on into a wedding limo killing the driver and a seven year old flower girl (by decapitation) got 18 to life.
I saw that piece - the wreck was incredible! I can’t believe anyone survived that crash....
Was the 14 year old related to these men? If not, why would a 14 year old be out drinking with grown men?
Why doesn't the author mention if the victims were also illegals?
IMHO, the others sound pretty sketchy. Not too many 14 year olds running around with a BAC of .14.
Just doing the jobs American Citizens won’t do.
SEND THIS STORY TO YOUR CongressCritters!!!
Interesting choice of words = "... who was an illegal immigrant." I guess with his arrest and sentencing he's a least temporarily legal.
One illegal hitting a car of other illegals at 4am is indicative of how many there are.
Might sound cold but fortunately he hit other illegals.
It’s about time the local and state governments cracked down on illegal immigrants especially when they commit crimes that wind up killing innocent people even if those killed were also illegal immigrants. This madness has got to stop and our various government and oikuce agencies have got to stop mollycoddling these criminals and letting them off with just a slap on the wrist. Start enforcing our immigration laws, That’s why they were created in the first place. Those laws were put in place to help all innocent citizens even new legal citizens to our country. But what is especially galling is the way that drunk drivers all across our country are given light sentences and allowed to return back to society and then wind up killing or maiming somebody other innocent folks. Let’s start by the courts and the justice system cracking down on drunk drivers nationally. Harsh penalties, fines, jail time even for the first offense rather than just a warning. Let offenders know that such behavior will not be tolerated and is extremely dangerous not only to that drunk driver but also to innocent people. Let’s start right now!
Blame the prohibitionists at MADD. They successfully redefined drunk driving from driving while dangerously impaired into driving after drinking anything.
As a result there are 1.5 million DUI arrests a year, the majority of whom were not seriously impaired, and the court system is setup to efficiently process 4000 of those offenders every day. Fine them , let their insurance company fine them some more, and let them go on with their lives.
The relatively few dangerous and multiple repeat drunks are mostly sent through to court cashier's checkout line and then out the door exactly like the guy who had two beers and then made a rolling right turn at a stop sign.
Solving a problem begins with accurately defining it. Something this Alice in Wonderland country is usually unwilling to do.
ping
One could be forgiven for wondering whether the fact this drunk was an illegal would've even been mentioned had not his victims been immigrants, also.
LaRaza will be front and center in congress TOMORROW demanding bailout $$$$ for “latino”..translate: ILLEGAL ALIEN foreclosures. Notice it says she will “WARN” congress.....
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
January 5, 2009 Jackeline Stewart (202) 785-1670
NCLR PRESIDENT AND CEO JANET MURGUÍA TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS ON STRATEGIES TO REDUCE LATINO FORECLOSURES
Washington, DC—Janet Murguía, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, will warn Congress against leaving homeowners out of the remaining funds of the bailout bill in a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, January 7. The hearing on the remaining funds of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will be presided over by Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) and will take place at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
NCLR has urged Congress to include the millions of foreclosure-plagued American homeowners in last year’s $700 billion relief program, and it is disappointed that more than half of the TARP funds have been spent without providing assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure—an underlying cause of the economic crisis. NCLR believes that the economy demands a new, bold foreclosure prevention strategy, starting with a shift in the distribution of the remaining TARP funds.
MEDIA ADVISORY
WHEN: Wednesday, January 7, 10:00 a.m.
WHERE: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2128
WHAT: Testimony of NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía before the House Financial Services Committee
If you would rather not receive future email messages from National Council of La Raza (NCLR), let us know by clicking here.
National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Raul Yzaguirre Building 1126 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 United States
______
And a note about this from an anti-illegal alien group:
On January 5th, The Wall Street Journal published a full-page plus article entitled “Housing Push for Hispanics Spawns Wave of Foreclosures”!
Isn’t it enough that La Raza has ripped off millions of OUR tax dollars with the federal grants to them AND Obama appointed Cecilia Munoz as Director of Governmental Affairs, now WE are supposed to bail out all THEIR illegal alien criminals?
And what does it mean Murguia will “warn” Congress? What will she do if they don’t agree - call out MS-13?
Please plan to be on the phone (toll-free 866/220-0044) to the Financial Services Committee first thing tomorrow DEMANDING that not one penny be awarded to ANY so-called “homeowner” who cannot provide legal status i.e. illegal alien !
Police taking bribes? Say it isn’t so!
It’s not a “bribe” as much as it is a “pay off” so that the illegal immigrant/alien is not reported to ICE. We have a minimum of 3 a week and sometimes as many as a dozen. Many are ‘repeaters’ and they all know to have money with them when they’re arrested. The trip to the Sheriff’s office and then their release takes about twenty minutes at most.
It’s a joke. And with corrupt authority, corruption reigns. I am friends with the Commissioner, but I don’t exactly trust him, either.
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