Thread: NC: Suspect in triple fatal wreck under immigration detainer

Suspect in triple fatal wreck under immigration detainer


Posted: Today at 9:16 a.m.
Updated: 39 minutes ago


Francisco Martinez

Raleigh, N.C. — A man accused of drunken-driving in oncoming traffic and causing a triple fatal wreck Sunday was placed under an immigration detainer at the time of his arrest, the Wake County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.

Francisco Martinez was traveling westbound in an eastbound lane on the inner loop of Interstate 440 Sunday when he collided with a car and killed three people, Raleigh police said.

Martinez, who was in jail Wednesday under a $126,000 bond, is charged with one count of driving while impaired, three counts of felony death by motor vehicle, two counts of felony serious injury by motor vehicle, one count of driving the wrong direction and one count of driving without a license.

Martinez is scheduled to make his first court appearance today in a Wake County courtroom.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed the detainer on Martinez following his release Tuesday from WakeMed, where he was recovering from his injuries. He was officially charged and arrested at that time.

The detainer means Martinez would be placed in federal custody if he posts bail, under suspicion of being in the country illegally. Once the case goes through the legal system and any sentence is served, deportation proceedings would begin against him.

Guillermo Zintzun Jimenez, 26, Dagoberto Zintzun Jimenez, 21, and Santiago Pascual Tellez, 14, were killed when Martinez's van collided head-on with a Lexus near the on-ramp from Capital Boulevard. Two other passengers in the car were injured but survived.

Dagoberto Jimenez and Tellez were not wearing seat belts, police said.

The victims' family members said the men were returning from a party when the wreck occurred.

Tellez, a student at East Wake Middle School, was supposed to return home earlier with his brother but wasn't ready to leave the party when his brother did, relatives said.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2948132/

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The man accused of killing three people and injuring two others in a Memorial Day weekend crash appeared in court Tuesday.

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Related Story: Driver In Triple Fatal I-440 Accident Appears In Court

Francisco Martinez, 30, is facing multiple charges stemming from the accident where police say he was driving the wrong way on the 440 Beltline.

Martinez hobbled into the Wake County Magistrate Courtroom with a walker.

He was still wearing a hospital gown after spending a couple days at Wake Med for injuries he suffered in the crash.

Martinez is facing several felony charges including; three counts of Death by Vehicle, two counts of serious injury by vehicle and driving without a license.

He appeared before a judge at about the same time Tuesday as the families of the victims continued making funeral plans for the three young men who were killed in the crash.

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins of the three young men gathered at the Renaissance Funeral home on Six Forks in Raleigh to comfort each other.

Both families have suffered devastating losses.

The youngest victim, 14-year-old Santiago Pascual Tellez was a student at East Wake Middle school.

Brothers Dagoberto and Guillermo Jimenez are described by their families as being each other’s best friends.

Their uncle Efain Pacheco Ramirez said they became especially close after their younger brother was killed three years ago under similar circumstances.

“This happened about three years ago, you know with the youngest one, he was probably about twelve-years-old, that happened the same thing, somebody hit him,â€

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-117044-.html


Wreck claims the lives of 3 young people

Published: May 26, 2008 07:28 PM
Modified: May 26, 2008 09:14 PM


By Mandy Locke, Staff Writer
Raleigh's roads have stolen much from Hermaldo and Estela Zintzun-Jimenez.

Three years ago, their youngest boy, Jose, died when a car slammed into their family's car. Sunday, another crash claimed the last of their children: Guillermo, 26, and Dagoberto, 21.

"They are hurting so bad, they can't even talk," said Felipe Rogelio, a cousin of the boys' father.

Guillermo and Dagoberto, brothers who acted more like friends, were driving a carload of buddies home from a party early Sunday morning when a drunk driver headed in the wrong direction slammed into them on the I-440 Beltline between Wake Forest Road and Capital Boulevard. The brothers died in the eastbound lanes, along with their 14-year-old friend, Santiago Pascual Tellez. The head-on crash banged up two others in Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez' Lexus sedan; one recovered at home with his family, while another friend remained at Wake-Med-Raleigh Campus.

Francisco Javier Martinez, the man Raleigh police say caused the crash, is also mending at WakeMed. He faces three felony death by motor vehicle charges in addition to a charge of driving while impaired and driving without a license. Martinez will be taken to jail and booked after doctors release him.

Martinez, who police say was the driver and lone occupant of the Chevy van that slammed into the Lexus, has gotten in trouble on the roads before, court records show. Officers have written him up several times for not having a valid registration card and for not having insurance for his vehicle. In 2006, Martinez was convicted for having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle. His driver's license has been suspended on and off for those infractions in recent years; it's unclear whether his driver's license was valid when he wrecked Sunday.

Zintzun-Jimenez' family doesn't have much faith that Martinez will be punished for killing the brothers. The driver who killed their 14-year-old Jose in 2005 pleaded his misdemeanor death by motor vehicle charge down to a conviction of failure to maintain lane control, court records show.

"We've seen this happen before," Rogelio, the cousin, said.

Since their youngest son died, Hermaldo and Estela Zintzun-Jimenez have been scared every time their boys drive, Rogelio said. They tried not to fret, reminding themselves that their oldest two were careful. Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez had also been driving the family car the day his brother Jose died. The car was giving them trouble that day, and Guillermo had pulled it onto the median of I-540 to take a look at the engine. A car slammed the rear of their vehicle before he could see about it, killing Jose.

Rogelio and a smattering of other relatives gathered outside the family's apartment Sunday and tried to understand how such ill fortune could befall such good young men.

"They didn't drink, they didn't smoke, they were the ones driving good Sunday," Rogelio said. "The horrors of this just hurt."

The family came to the United States from Mexico about 12 years ago, Rogelio said. The oldest son, Guillermo, found work in construction. Dagoberto was a cashier at a Sears store in North Raleigh. The young men lived in an apartment off Litchfield Road with their parents.

Relatives and family friends are trying to raise money to help the Zintzun-Jimenez family pay for the funerals of their children. Donation boxes will be set up at several stores in the area.

mandy.locke@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-8927

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1085989.html[/u][/b]

Illegal immigrant gets 13 years in fatal DWI crash
3 native Mexicans died in wrong-way driving
Sarah Ovaska, Staff Writer
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RALEIGH - Francisco Martinez's decision to drive drunk and head the wrong way on Raleigh's Inner Beltline ended up costing the lives of three fellow Mexican immigrants headed home on the same road.
On Monday, Martinez, 30, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of felony injury by vehicle. He could have faced 125 years in prison, if given the maximum on all charges, but Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand consolidated the sentences as part of a plea agreement.

All three who died in the May 25 wreck originally came from Mexico -- as did Martinez, who was an illegal immigrant.

Brothers Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez, 26, and Dagoberto Zintzun-Jimenez, 21, of Raleigh, had been in the country since they were children. Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez worked in construction, and Dagoberto Zintzun-Jimenez manned a cash register at a Sears department store for years.

The third victim, Santiago Pascual Tellez, 14, of Knightdale came to the Raleigh area a decade earlier as a 4-year-old. The popular eighth-grader planned on becoming a police officer when he was older, his family said.

Martinez chose to say nothing during the Monday afternoon hearing at the Wake County Courthouse. But he wiped tears from his face several times. He'll face deportation when his prison sentence is finished, no earlier than the latter part of 2021.

Martinez arrived in the country illegally five years ago with his wife and their two daughters, said his attorney, Charles Christopher. Since then, the couple had another child, and Martinez worked as a painter, eventually heading his own crew and frequently pulling six- to seven-day workweeks in order to keep up with the demand for his crew's services.

In advance of a rare day off, Martinez joined some friends at a gathering and began drinking the night before the wreck. He eventually left about 4 a.m. and headed home, Christopher said.

Wrong way on the Beltline

Martinez intended to get on the Outer Beltline near Rock Quarry Road. Instead, he headed up an exit ramp and drove the wrong way on the Inner Beltline, according to Christopher and Wake Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cruden.

A newspaper carrier spotted Martinez's white Chevy work van going the wrong way and called police. Seconds later, a Raleigh police officer also about to get on the Beltline saw him and followed him with emergency lights flashing in an attempt to stop Martinez, Cruden said.

Martinez continued driving the wrong way and slammed into a Lexus with the Zintzun-Jimenez brothers, Santiago and two others inside. Martinez received a broken ankle and had a blood-alcohol content of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08 for a person to drive in North Carolina.

"He knew he shouldn't be driving, and he knew he was responsible for the tragedy he caused," Christopher said.

Six hours before the wreck, Martinez was pulled over by a Raleigh police officer, who determined that Martinez's license had expired a few days earlier. The officer did not detect any signs Martinez had been drinking alcohol at that time and released him, Cruden said.

Some of those in the Lexus also had been drinking.

Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez, who was driving the Lexus, had a blood alcohol content of 0.05, underneath the legal limit, while Santiago, the 14-year-old, had enough alcohol his system to register a 0.14, Cruden said. Santiago's family said they weren't aware the teen had been drinking that night.

The deaths of Guillermo and Dagoberto Zintzun-Jimenez hit their family especially hard, marking the second time a loved one had been killed in a traffic accident. In 2005, a brother to the two men died when their car malfunctioned and Guillermo Zintzun-Jimenez stopped on the side of Interstate 540. Another vehicle slammed into them, killing 14-year-old Jose.

The driver who killed Jose Jimenez in 2005 had an initial charge of misdemeanor death by vehicle dropped to a conviction of failure to maintain lane control. That stuck in the minds of Estela and Hermaldo Zintzun-Jimenez, who came to court Monday and feared the killer of their remaining two sons wouldn't be punished.

"We blame Mr. Martinez whose fate is in your hands," Estela Zintzun-Jimenez wrote Rand, the judge, in a translated letter that was read in court. "We want justice done for what was done."

Before the hearing, the Pascual and Zintzun-Jimenez families, many members unable to understand the English-language court proceedings, met with prosecutors to discuss Martinez's plea agreement. After Martinez was sentenced, a victims' witness liaison translated what happened, including the 13-year sentence Martinez got for the deaths of three people.

"A todo? [For everything?]," Estela Zintzun-Jimenez asked.

She wiped tears away from her face as she was told yes, that the prison sentence was for all three deaths.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1355903.html

Six hours before the wreck, Martinez was pulled over by a Raleigh police officer, who determined that Martinez's license had expired a few days earlier. The officer did not detect any signs Martinez had been drinking alcohol at that time and released him, Cruden said...........NICE, That sure makes me feel safe.

i DON'T MEAN TO SEEMED COLD HEARTED BUT !!!

These people have been in the US for how long why did they need someone to translate?? Next cold hearted question, Why are they sending them to Mesico to be buried if they had any allengence to the US they would bury the bodies close to them to visit.

I do not understand if this person that caused the accident has been in this country for over five years and been cited for lack of insurance and invalid drivers license..

His license was not valid that alone shoud have keyed the officer to the fact something was wrong..And herre we go the people in the lexus had also been drinking as a way to justify this accident.
They seem to have known all along he was here illegally. He should have arrested and deported a long time ago,,

fmrjarhead Hey and exactly.
________________________________

What is going on here?

The families want to send the remains back to Santiago Azajo in Mexico to be buried in the traditional family plots.

Are the victims undocumented immigrants, too? And are we Americans paying to send remains back to Santiago Azajo in Mexico?

Sickening. My children do not have burial insurance and my taxes are taking care of undocumented immigrants burial arrangements and hospital bills.