In a followup to the tragic car wreck story, the officials involved in letting this illegal alien murderer get back behind the wheel of a car are all scrambling to justify why they dropped the ball.

A Harris County prosecutor, criticized for negotiating in 2005 a reduced drunken driving penalty for a man now accused of intoxicated manslaughter in the death of two women, said Wednesday she believed a jury would have been equally lenient.
[…]
If convicted of a felony in the 2005 case, Gomez-Gutierrez would have faced two to 10 years in prison.

But more importantly, he would’ve likely been deported.

Yet [assistant Harris County district attorney Colleen] Barnett believes the terms she negotiated in the 2005 plea agreement were justified based on the fact that Gomez-Gutierrez had no violent criminal past and none of three DWIs involved an accident or injury.

And now we see just how violent and criminal a DWI can be. Unfortunately, for the victims, it’s a little too late.

It also appears the illegals understand our immigration laws and prosecution better than the folks hired to enforce such laws. When Barnett offered Gomez-Gutierrez a plea deal with two options of either pleading guilty to a felony and receive five years probation, 30 days confinement, $500 fine, 160 hours of community service and substance abuse treatment or pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and spend a year in county jail, he took the misdemeanor because, as Barnett says:

He might not have chosen the felony probation out of fear of deportation, Barnett said, adding sometimes defendants think it’s “easier to sit out the jail time.”

ICE also showed no interest in dealing harshly with this repeat offender.

Harris County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dana Wolfe said federal immigration authorities are notified whenever an illegal immigrant is booked into the jail, like Gomez-Gutierrez.

“They then had an opportunity to place them on hold (for deportation). But it was totally up to them,” she said.

Deason, the immigration spokeswoman, said she could not say if the agency was notified until she gets the file.

“We were trying to focus on worst of the worst, felonies such as aggravated sexual assaults and murders back in 2005,” she said.

Well, now you got a murderer. I guess it’s okay to deal with him now.

Tragic.

On a side note: Hat’s off to Houston Chronicle reporter Cindy Horswell for not being afraid to call the illegal an illegal.

Gomez-Gutierrez, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, is now facing his fourth drunken driving charge.