Thread: Update to Gardner Case

http://www.wral.com/apncnews/4990366/detail.html

Woman Injured In Drunken Driving Wreck Trying To Emerge From Coma


CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Relatives of a woman critically injured in an apparent drunken driving wreck two months ago said she is trying to awaken from a coma.

Tina Gardner, 31, of Mount Holly, was a passenger in a Subaru station wagon driven by her husband, Scott Gardner that collided with a truck driven by Ramiro Gallegos on July 16 in coastal Brunswick County.

Scott Gardner was killed in the accident. The couple's two young children suffered minor injuries.

Tina Gardner suffered severe injuries and has been at WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh in a coma since. A family Web site said over the weekend that though she remains comatose and unable to talk, she is attempting to interact with visitors by squeezing hands.

Gardner has been receiving physical therapy and had a trachea tube removed last week. She is listed in fair condition.

"It's pretty much the best signs that we've seen," said Leslie Gardner-Gipson, sister of Scott Gardner.

Gallegos, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, faces second-degree murder charges in the wreck. The case has generated widespread discussion because Gallegos had been convicted three times of driving while intoxicated but never deported.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., whose district includes Mount Holly, has introduced legislation that would increase the responsibility of local law enforcement agencies to report immigration status, deportation orders and failures to appear to the FBI's National Crime Information Center database within 30 days of incidents involving illegal immigrants.

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http://www.alipac.us/article734.html