Wreck shocks suspect's girlfriend

Teen describes racing accident that injured 5

DÃ?NICA COTO

Staff Writer

GASTONIA - Mirna Moreno was following her boyfriend, Amilcar Valladares, in a separate car Monday night when police said he lost control while racing another person and hit five people standing in line at the Dairy Queen on Franklin Boulevard.

Police are still looking for Valladares, 26, charged with three counts of felony hit and run and failure to stop personal injury, and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon resulting in serious injury.

Authorities said they expect to file additional charges after the last two people who were injured are released from the hospital. Nicholas Pappas, 29, is in fair condition at Gaston Memorial Hospital, while Mathew Weir, 20, is in fair condition at Carolinas Medical Center.

Mirna, 17, and her father, Rodrigo Moreno, said they haven't seen or heard from Valladares since Monday.

"He should surrender so everything can be resolved," said Rodrigo Moreno, 38, in Spanish.

When asked whether she wanted to tell Valladares anything, Mirna shook her head. "I can't even think now," said Mirna, who is five months pregnant with his son.

The family doubts they'll be reunited.

"It's as if he were dead to you," Moreno told his oldest of six daughters Thursday as they sat in their Gastonia apartment.

The other driver in the race, whom police said didn't hit anybody or anything, turned herself in Wednesday. Sara Marie Wall, 21, of Belmont was charged with speed competition and reckless driving/wanton disregard for the rights and safety of others, both misdemeanors. She's in Gaston County Jail under a $2,500 bond.

Both Wall and Valladares have been found guilty of speeding in past years, according to N.C. court records.

The night of the accident, Mirna Moreno said she and Valladares were at a store near Franklin Square in east Gastonia buying a stereo and getting it installed in her car.

When they left, Valladares was already about four cars in front of her, Moreno said.

She said she never saw Valladares speeding or wreck his car. When she passed the accident scene, she said she didn't look closely and just assumed it was someone else's car.

"Because I'm scared of blood, I didn't have the courage to stop," she said in Spanish.

When she got home, she asked her father why Valladares wasn't there. She said she told her father about the wreck and wondered if it was him. They returned to the scene and saw crime-scene tape blocking off a portion of Franklin Boulevard. Since they couldn't cross it to talk to anyone, they returned home, they said.

Valladares is from El Salvador and met Mirna Moreno a year ago. Rodrigo Moreno said that around that time he had an accident and was hospitalized for more than two weeks. Moreno said his wife was able to visit him because Valladares drove her to and from the hospital.

"He was very nice," Moreno said. "My neighbors would do me the favor one day, not every day."

On Thursday, Valladares was supposed to pick him and Mirna up and go house-hunting, Moreno said. He had told the family that he wanted to help pay for a bigger house so they could all live together, Moreno said.



Alien crime reportage is beginning to seem like Ground Hog Day. It is happening over and over and over.