Illegal Immigrant Who Defied Deportation Orders for Over 10 Years Charged with DUI Hit-and-Run Killing
An illegal immigrant who has defied deportation orders for more than a decade has been charged with killing a 71-year-old Californian in a hit-and-run while allegedly driving drunk, according to reports.
Mexican national Humberto Munoz Gatica, 57, was first arrested by ICE in 2011, but released the following year under the Obama administration, federal law enforcement sources told Fox News.
He has now been accused of being the driver who knocked down and killed pedestrian Barry William Tutt in Dana Point on Friday, the Orange County Register reported.
Witnesses reported seeing a silver Ford sedan hitting Tutt before speeding off.
Gatica, of Laguna Niguel, was arrested the next day and booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of DUI and charges related to the hit-and-run.
Gatica has been living illegally in the US since at least 2011, when he was arrested by ICE while accused of robbery, the federal law enforcement sources told Fox News.
He was released under the Obama administration but ignored his notice to appear in court, the sources said.
A federal immigration judge ordered his deportation in absentia in 2012. But Gatica remained in the US thanks to California’s sanctuary state status, the sources said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team is handling the case.
