Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez will receive an eight-year suspended sentence and five years of probation after pleading guilty Monday to one count of vehicular manslaughter and nine counts of reckless driving, according to a statement released by the L.A. County district attorney’s office.
The plea bars Gutierrez from driving for five years. If he violates the terms of his probation, he would have to serve his entire prison sentence, prosecutors said.
“Today’s plea and sentence cannot undo the devastation of that day, nor will it bring back the life that was lost,” Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said. “But it does mark a step toward justice and a measure of closure for the victims and their families whose lives have been forever changed.”
Gutierrez fell asleep while driving to work near the department’s STARS Center training academy early in the morning on Nov. 16, 2022, his attorney, Alexandra Kazarian, previously told The Times. His car veered into the wrong lane of traffic as a group of nearly 80 recruits ran along Mills Avenue.
More than two dozen recruits were struck and hurt, with 10 suffering serious injuries, prosecutors said. Alejandro Martinez, 27, died from his injuries months later.
Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva initially claimed his investigators found probable cause that the crash was an intentional attack on law enforcement and described the case as an attempted murder. Kazarian said there was no evidence of that. Villanueva did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Gutierrez’s father is a retired corrections officer and he has relatives who worked in the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and the Sheriff’s Department, according to Kazarian, who said her client “harbors absolutely no animosity toward law enforcement.”
In an interview with KNBC-TV Channel 4 in 2022, Gutierrez said the crash was an accident and that he wished “it never happened.”
About the Author
Discover more from USA NEWS
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
