Father: ‘I cannot forgive the man who killed my child’
Man describes son’s final breaths after deadly crash
Myron Grant sat in a University of New Mexico Hospital room Saturday night, holding his son’s hand. Matthew Grant was on life support, mouth filled with gauze, his chest moving involun- tarily as he opened his mouth every few minutes.
“I was watching how far it was between each breath. They got farther and farther and farther apart. He took one more breath and there was not another one in 5 minutes, in 10 minutes, in 30 minutes, in an hour,” Myron Grant said.
Matthew Grant, 21, took his last apparent breath at 7:27 p.m. Saturday and was officially pronounced dead hours later.
He died after a driver rammed into a car carrying him and three other Uni- versity of New Mexico students near Rio Grande and Mountain late Friday night while the group was on its way to a house party.
The crash also killed 21-year-old Briana Hillard and seriously injured 21-year-old Joseph Mendoza and Julia Thompson, all UNM students. Mendoza was released from the hospital Sunday, and Thompson was expected to be released Monday night, accord-
ing to UNMH spokeswoman Furhana Afrid.
Pol ice say 21-year- old Joshua Leal was driving a stolen pickup truck when he slammed into Hillard’s car after an officer saw him speeding north on Rio Grande late Friday night. Leal fled from the car and was sniffed out in a nearby neighborhood by police dogs. Leal told police he had smoked marijuana three to four hours before the crash, and police found marijuana in his front pocket. He was charged with homicide by vehicle, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, tampering with evidence, larceny and child abuse, among other things.
Another suspect, 16-year-old Miguel Hernandez, who police say was Leal’s passenger, was booked into the juvenile detention center.
“I cannot forgive the man who killed my child and Bri- ana,” Myron Grant said. “But I am praying that I do not hate, I cannot live with the hate. It will destroy me.”
Mendoza said in an interview the group was trying to get into Casa Esencia, a popular club, Friday night. They had waited for 25 minutes before deciding to go to a house party instead. Mendoza remembers closing the car door, but doesn’t remember the crash.
“I just remember waking up, I was still in the car upside down in the seatbelt,” Mendoza said. “I could see Briana, my girlfriend, she was sitting next to me. She was the first one I saw. I just assumed she had been knocked out. I held her hand and blacked out again.”
Mendoza had a broken pelvis and broke multiple vertebrae. He also lost a tooth. He said doctors told him he likely won’t walk for two months, but will be able to fully recover after physical therapy.
“I was in a fair amount of pain when I first got to the hospital, but it was more painful learning about my girlfriend and learning about my friend Matt,” Mendoza said. “Everything else I can recover from. But it’s going to be hard to recover from that.”
Myron Grant and his wife, Linda, said more than 100 UNM students, many of them Matt’s friends, packed the hospital’s second floor hallway leading to the intensive care unit as doctors worked on Matt Grant for most of the day. Social media was flooded with condolences for him and Hillard. A memorial service is scheduled for 7 p.m. today in the Student Union Building’s ballrooms.
Matt Grant, an Albuquerque native, was studying criminology and wanted to get a graduate degree in business before going to law school, his father said. He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He worked during most of his spare time and recently had a job serving pizza on the West Side. His former boss Nicole Villareal said he showed up with sombreros on Cinco de Mayo and forced the entire staff of the small Italian restaurant to wear them for the holiday. He liked to exercise and had a GPA up to 3.7. His organs were donated when he died.
“Everyone loved Matt, I can’t think of one person who didn’t like Matt,” said Ryan Williams, one of Matt Grant’s friends who waited at the hospital. “It was just awful, a nightmare, a terrible place to be. But he would have loved to see all of his friends there.”
Hillard grew up in Albuquerque and was studying business administration at UNM. She was part of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, and loved to travel and go to music festivals with her friends. One of her longtime friends, 21-year-old Liliana Covington, said she helped organize an Easter egg hunt every year for her neighborhood.
Hillard’s grandmother, Lauren Austin, said it was unbelievable when the police showed up at her door. She said Hillard was always enthusiastic about life.
“She would wake up and say, ‘What amazing thing is going to happen today?’ ” Austin said. “If others can do that, Briana will live on forever.” Journal digital news editor Robert Browman contributed to this report.