A man who hit five vehicles, injuring seven people, while driving drunk the wrong way on the south Outerbelt pleaded guilty today to three counts of aggravated vehicular assault.
Baltazar J. Altunar, who was injured so badly that a medic believed he was dead, hobbled into Franklin County Common Pleas Court with the help of a cane to admit he'd been drunk when he drove against traffic for 5 miles on I-270 on Christmas Day 2008.
"I fell asleep, and I went the wrong way," Altunar, 21, told Judge John F. Bender.
Drivers skidded, swerved and - in one case - rolled off the highway to avoid his Nissan Maxima, which was traveling west in the eastbound lanes of I-270. Altunar hit three cars before slamming into a tractor-trailer and colliding head-on with another vehicle about 10 a.m. near Alum Creek Drive, witnesses told police.
Altunar, who lived on Derrer Road, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.219 percent. An Ohio driver is considered intoxicated at 0.08 percent. Empty beer cans and a cardboard beer case were found in wreckage surrounding the Nissan.
A medic who was at the crash scene but not involved with the rescue pronounced Altunar dead, but other medics saw signs of life. Altunar was hospitalized for five months and said in court he is facing at least one more operation, to close a wound in his chest.
Altunar is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and will be deported after serving any prison sentence. Bender ordered a pre-sentence investigation and said he will sentence him Feb. 12. Altunar had been charged with six counts of aggravated vehicular assault and two counts of driving while intoxicated. Five of those counts were dropped as a result of his guilty pleas to the three felonies, which involved injures to three people in the same vehicle.
In a separate case, Altunar pleaded guilty to drunken driving in 2007, court records show.
1 comment:
This guy should have never been sold the Beer in 2007 A under age drinking charge and possession as well as a DUI should have gotten this criminal alien from MEXICO kicked out in 07
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