Man facing Florida drug charges
Police: Accident victim gave false name
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| Ramiro Alvarado-Dominguez |
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THOMSON – The undocumented worker who ran away from a fatal car crash Aug. 8 had a 6-year-old Florida warrant charging him with felony drug possesion, police said Tuesday.
Is that why he fled? That they don’t know, state police Lt. John Biffany said Tuesday.
Last week, police learned that Badera Aguilar-Montero, 22, is wanted on a $10,000 warrant for felony drug possesion issued in Collier County, Fla., in December 2006.
The name on the warrant – and a check of his fingerprints – identify him as Ramiro Alvarado, however, and in an interview with police Monday, he admitted his name is Ramiro Alvarado-Dominguez, Biffany said.
He did not say he ran away because of the warrant, though, Biffany said. “I think he was just scared and fled out of panic or fear.”
Alvarado-Dominguez is in Carroll County Jail on $100,000 bond, charged with fleeing the scene of an accident, a felony, and failure to report an accident, having an expired driver’s license, and illegal transportation of alcohol, all traffic offenses.
He is to be tried Oct. 29.
He also is here illegally and faces deportation after his case is resolved. He likely won’t face the drug charge, though, because Florida officials won’t pay the cost to extradite him, Biffany said.
Whether he’ll face additional Carroll County charges, such as obstructing justice, was not known Tuesday.
State’s Attorney Scott Brinkmeier declined to comment on the recent developments or on how they could affect the case.
Alvarado-Dominguez’s attorney, Don Schweihs, could not be reached for comment.
According to police:
About 2 p.m. Aug. 8, Earl Lashelle, 80, of Savanna, was northbound on state Route 84 just north of Three Mile Road when he crossed the center line and hit Alvarado-Dominguez’s Pontiac Firebird.
Both cars were totaled. Lashelle died at Mercy Hospital in Clinton, Iowa.
Alvarado-Dominguez ran into a cornfield near the former Krazy Acres Funland in Thomson. Officers, police dogs, two airplanes and mounted patrols searched the field. Alvarado-Dominguez was found about 12:30 p.m. the next day, not far from the crash site, and jailed.
Police said they found bottles of beer in “various stages of being open” when they searched his car.
Before the accident, he had been drinking beer with friends at a nearby house, and it appears they were drinking around the back of his car, which may explain why the bottles were found in there, Biffany said.
Alvarado-Dominguez was on his way to a convenience store to buy a phone card when Lashelle hit him, Biffany said.
According to blood tests, neither man had drugs or alcohol in their systems, and it doesn’t appear Lashelle had any health problems that may have contributed to the crash, so why he crossed the center line is a mystery, Biffany said.
After his arrest, Alvarado-Dominguez’s fingerprints were sent to the FBI; on Sept. 24, police learned of his Florida warrant.
According to online court records in Florida, his birth date is Aug. 25, 1982. In Carroll County, his birth date is listed as Aug. 25, 1990.
Some people sympathetic to his situation say Alavarado-Dominguez was working in watermelon fields near Fulton before the accident. He is from Chiapas, a poor state in southern Mexico, where he has a wife and child, they say.
