Illegal Immigrant Charged With Criminal Vehicular Homicide

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Clarisse Grime's family doesn't have money for her funeral and a fund has been set up for them, said Jessica Vazquez, Grime's boyfriend's aunt. It's the Clarisse Grime Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank.


The high school sweethearts saw the SUV barreling toward them as they sat under a tree outside St. Paul's Harding High School. The boy tried to pull the girl out of the way, but it was too late.


Eduardo Vazquez-Torres, 17, carried Clarisse Grime, 16, away after the vehicle hit her, hoping to keep her alive, said his aunt, Jessica Vazquez.


"She couldn't talk," Vazquez said of what her nephew told her about Grime. "She was unconscious, coughing and then just gasping for air and just died."


The Ramsey County attorney's office charged Carlos Viveros-Colorado, 50, on Friday, July 6, with criminal vehicular homicide. The St. Paul man has never had a Minnesota driver's license, was convicted of DWI in 2001, and has a series of recent speeding tickets.

His sister told police that Viveros-Colorado is undocumented and in the United States illegally.


Two witnesses estimated Viveros-Colorado was travelling over 50 mph Thursday when he lost control of his sport-utility vehicle and careened about 50 feet down an embankment near the sign for Harding High School on Third Street, by Hazelwood Street.


Large groups of students gathered near the sign Friday, crying; they left mementos and remembered Grime. She was a bright girl, who earned almost all A's and B's during her freshman and sophomore year at Harding, her family and the district said. She would have been a junior in the fall.


English was Grime's third language --- she was born in Ethiopia and spoke Amharic, then lived in Italy for about 10 years, said Terri Martin, a Harding English Language Learner teacher.


"I could see her as secretary of state or who knows? She could have run for governor," Martin said of Grime's promising future.
Grime and her family moved to the United States 2-1/2 years ago.


"We have always dreamed of living in the United States and living out the American dream of working hard and giving our daughter the same opportunities that other American teenage students have," stepfather Yoseph Yimam and mother Martha Tamene Woldegiorgis said in a statement Friday. "That dream has now been broken. Our daughter's dream has ended."


Grime, an only child, liked to sew, draw and paint. Harding "was like a second home for her," her parents said.


She was attending summer school to get extra help with tests required for graduation, said Jackie Turner, St. Paul Public Schools chief engagement officer.


On Thursday, as they did every day after school, Grime and Vazquez-Torres were waiting outside the school for a Metro Transit bus, said Vazquez, the boy's aunt. After they met at Harding, the couple had been dating for about two years, she said.


Carlos Viveros-Colorado, 50, of St. Paul was arrested Thursday, July 5, 2012, on suspicion of criminal vehicle operation. (Photo courtesy of Ramsey County sheriff's office)



"They were so much in love," Vazquez said.


The teens, sitting in the grass, were facing the football field and track when they heard a crash behind them, she said of what her nephew told her.


Viveros-Colorado, heading east on Third Street and turning left onto Hazelwood, had hit a fire hydrant. It was about 1 p.m. He lost control of the vehicle, headed across Hazelwood and plowed into a "No Parking" sign.


Vazquez-Torres thought the sign would stop the vehicle from continuing on, but it didn't, Vazquez said.


The 2001 maroon Ford Expedition drove "straight at the couple," according to the criminal complaint filed Friday. Vazquez-Torres tried to jump out of the way but was struck in the hip, the complaint said.


The driver got out and the only thing he said was that his brakes had failed, Vazquez said.


The complaint also contains these allegations:


Viveros-Colorado told police after they approached him that his left leg and right arm went numb while he was driving.


"Viveros-Colorado then said both legs and his left arm went numb while he was driving," the complaint said. He swerved to avoid a parked car and that's when his truck went over a curb, hit a sign and headed down the hill where he hit the two teens, he told police.


Then he said his foot was stuck on the accelerator. He estimated he was going at least 40 mph.


Students and friends gather in front of Harding High School before 9:30 a.m. during an impromptu memorial for Clarisse Grime on Friday, July 6, 2012. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)



Viveros-Colorado further told police that the numbness began three or four months ago, and that his legs would go to sleep and feel heavy, as if they were in a cast. He sought help at HealthPartners but doctors were not able to find anything wrong, he said.


He said feeling lasted about 15 minutes, and said he has to rub his legs to regain function.


"Viveros-Colorado admitted it was dangerous for him to drive with his condition, but he said he was hoping to make it home from work," the complaint said.


A witness driving behind Viveros-Colorado said that the Expedition was driving "real fast -- like 50 or 60 mph," that he saw it make a wide left and hit a fire hydrant, causing dirt to fly, before it hit the girl. The witness got out of his car and saw Vazquez-Torres try to move Grime.


Another witness estimated that the speed was at least 50 mph when it came down Third Street and that she never heard the SUV hit its brakes. She was driving in the opposite direction on Third Street, and had planned to turn into Hazelwood but changed her mind, fearing the Expedition might hit her, she told police.


She said the SUV "gradually crossed the center lane and crossed into the oncoming traffic lane ... then barreled through the fire hydrant and over onto the grass," the complaint said.


She believed Viveros-Colorado was actually trying to get away from the scene afterwards because he put the Expedition in reverse and the tires were spinning.


When police arrived, a witness ran to a squad car and yelled, "A girl got hit by a car and she is dying."


The officer saw Grime with what appeared to be severe head injuries and internal injuries. She was unresponsive and gasping for air. Shortly before an ambulance arrived, she no longer had a pulse. She was pronounced dead at the scene.


Blood was drawn from Viveros-Colorado, for toxicology tests, and results are pending, said Howie Padilla, police spokesman.


Viveros-Colorado's sister approached officers at the scene. She inquired about the Expedition and was told that it would be held pending an investigation. She said Viveros-Colorado called her after the crash and she came to the site to find out what happened.


Viveros-Colorado was talking on a cell phone when police approached him. Officers took the phone and put him in the back of a squad car.


At the jail, he gave police various street addresses.

When they found a check stub in the name of another man in his pocket, he said that he used the name and Social Security number of another person so that he could get paid from work.


Viveros-Colorado is being held at the Ramsey County jail. He will make his first court appearance Monday.


Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed an immigration detainer on Viveros-Colorado, a spokesman said. If released from local custody, he will be immediately released to ICE.


State records show Viveros-Colorado has never been issued a Minnesota driver's license.

Padilla said he has no information about whether Viveros-Colorado has a driver's license in another state.


Back at Harding, the school offered counseling Friday and there has been an "overwhelming response," Turner said. At least 100 students sought help, said Darlene Fry, the district's director of the office of college and career readiness.


Many students were outside at the time of the accident, Fry said, but she didn't know how many witnessed it. Counselors will be back at the school Monday, she said.


Martin, Grime's teacher, said she was an energetic, outgoing student who enjoyed learning.


"I can see her face and she's smiling at me -- big, bright smile," said Martin, who added she couldn't stop talking about the teen in the present tense. "Her smile would just light up a room."


Sobbing teenagers also remembered Grime mostly for her smile. They described her as friendly, outgoing and a very "sweet girl" who made only friends, not enemies.


"She was there. Just right there" said Araceli Perez, pointing at the tree where Grime was killed. "I don't even know how this could happen. I keep saying to myself that is not her."


Perez, 17, had known Grime for about a year. She said she spoke with Grime about noon the day of the accident, an hour before she was killed. She described her last moments with Grime as playful, and said she looked very happy with her boyfriend.


"He was the love of her life," Perez said. "I'm just glad she died happy and next to him."


Several students who also knew Vasquez-Torres said they saw him at a school memorial earlier Friday, but he refused to talk to anyone about what happened.


Vazquez said it was hard to believe that the day before the accident, on the Fourth of July, she and her family had spent all day with her nephew and Grime, having fun at Valleyfair Amusement Park. They went out to eat afterward and talked about the teens' futures, she said.


Grime wanted three children -- two boys and a girl, and thought it would be great if Vazquez-Torres would stay home with the kids while she worked, Vazquez said.


Vazquez-Torres, who was released from the hospital Thursday night, was resting Friday afternoon and in shock, his aunt said. He has bruises and scrapes, she said.


"It's going to be really hard, I can tell you that much, because his life revolved around her," she said.


Danya P. Hernandez contributed to this report.


St. Paul: Victim in fatal Harding High crash was 'gasping for air;' driver charged with criminal vehicular homicide (w/ video) - TwinCities.com