Driver who ran from crash didn’t have valid license
An 18-year-old driver who ran away from a fatal crash on Alligator Alley does not have a valid license and was caught swapping seats with a passenger when he was pulled over last year, records show.
No one has yet been charged in relation to Wednesday’s early morning crash that flipped an SUV carrying seven people and killed Eymi AguileraTorres, a 9-year-old girl from Fort Lauderdale.
Carlos Jeovany Gutierrez, of Miami, was one of two drivers who may have caused the crash, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
“We don’t know if it’s drag racing or not. Obviously, we’re looking to see if speed was a factor,” said Lt. Al Feola, an FHP spokesman.
Gutierrez was driving a 2013 Infiniti, and Jeraisy Perez, 17, of North Miami, was driving a Nissan when the crash happened about 3:30 a.m. near Mile Marker 43 on westbound Interstate 75, according to the FHP.
Both drivers ran away from the scene, troopers say.
Gutierrez was twice last year, show.
When he was pulled over for failing to make a complete stop on Nov. 21 in Collier County, an approaching deputy saw Gutierrez swap seats with a woman passenger, a police report said.
Gutierrez confessed that “he got nervous” because he did not have a valid driver’s license, the report said.
The car Gutierrez was driving during that traffic stop was a 2013 Infiniti registered to his sister — the same make and year of the car he was driving Wednesday, records show.
The deputy found arrested records 4.1 grams of marijuana in the vehicle, which the woman claimed was hers, the report said.
Gutierrez, who told the deputy he had been working in Naples for about a month doing construction, was cited and eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of driving without a valid driver’s license, records show.
He was ordered to pay $370 in fines and court costs. A notice dated March 19 informing Gutierrez that he had failed to pay on time was returned to the sender, according to court records.
In Miami-Dade County, Gutierrez has a pending felony case on a charge of illegal possession of a firearm.
He was arrested on that charge on June 18 at 2400 S. Bayshore Drive in Miami when police responded to a call of after-hours trespassing, court records show.
The officers smelled marijuana coming from a picnic table where Gutierrez was sitting with another man. The cop said he saw Gutierrez toss something into the grass as he approached, a police report said.
The officer found a Smith and Wesson Bodyguard .380 nearby with an illegible serial number, according to the report.
According to records from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Gutierrez still does not have a valid license.
After Wednesday’s crash, Gutierrez and Perez ditched their cars and fled but were caught later by deputies with police dogs. They were both seriously hurt and taken to Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Feola said.
Gutierrez’s Infiniti clipped the left rear bumper of the SUV bound for Bradenton, sending it flipping into the opposite lanes, a crash report said.
One person in the SUV was unharmed. Eymi was flown to a hospital, where she died, and five others, ranging in ages from 42 to 7, suffered serious or minor injuries, FHP said.
“Investigators will analyze all the evidence collected to determine the sequence of events on this crash between all three vehicles,” the report said.
Charges are pending the outcome of a traffic homicide investigation and detectives are investigating whether alcohol was a factor in Gutierrez’s involvement in the crash, the crash report said.