There’s a Crozet-based landscaper named Jaime Castro Martinez who would like to be deported as soon as possible. That’s because he’s incarcerated, charged with seriously injuring an 80-year-old woman in a late winter drunk driving crash.
"He doesn’t want to be in jail," his lawyer Travis Brinton told The Daily Progress last week. "He would rather be deported than sit in jail."
However, prosecutor Ray Szwabowski fought for the commonwealth’s right to prosecute, and an Albemarle County judge recently agreed to allow the felony maiming case to move forward, a move that keeps the defendant in jail and sets the matter for a preliminary nearing next month.
Police say that 45-year-old Castro Martinez, a self-employed landscaper, was at the wheel of his 2019 Ram 1500 pickup truck when he caused the March 14 crash. The location was the 3600 block of Dick Woods Road. That’s near the entrance to the Rosemont subdivision where the speed limit on the two-lane road is posted at 55 mph.
"The evidence on scene suggests that Castro Martinez was traveling eastbound and crossed the center line," investigating officer David Sprouse wrote in a criminal complaint.
After striking a westbound vehicle, the truck rolled and lost the load of gravel it had been towing in a trailer, according to the officer.
Not wearing a seat belt, Castro Martinez was injured in the crash. But the allegedly errant motorist wasn’t the only one hurt.
"The driver of the other vehicle involved was also transported to the hospital due to their injuries," wrote Sprouse.
The officer’s report did not reveal the nature of the injuries to the 80-year-old woman visiting from Williamsburg, but what the officer did convey sounded serious.
"They have had ongoing appointments and treatment regarding this crash," Sprouse wrote, "and they have significant physical impairment as a direct result from the crash."
The officer also shared a pair of concerning forensic discoveries: an array of empty Michelob Ultra cans in the back seat of the truck and an illegal blood-alcohol level in the body of the driver.
Sprouse filed a search warrant for the results of Castro Martinez’s hospital blood test, and the result was between 0.10% and 0.11%, a range above Virginia’s legal driving limit of 0.08%. That level backs the most serious charge Castro Martinez faces, maiming while driving under the influence, a Class 6 felony which can bring a term up to five years.
Castro Martinez was previously convicted of drunk driving four years ago after a diligent citizen pursued his swerving pickup truck along U.S. 29 and Interstate 64. In that case, there was no crash, but Castro Martinez tested with a blood-alcohol level of 0.19%, more than twice the legal limit.
Pursuant to that case, he was subsequently charged with failure to abide by his court-ordered alcohol safety program; however those charges were dismissed. Also dismissed in the prior DUI case was a charge of eluding an officer and driving without a license.
Now, Castro Martinez again faces a charge of driving without a license. Additionally, the recent wreck brought him charges of reckless driving, driving without insurance and driving without a current vehicle registration or inspection.
Brinton, his attorney, asserts that the recent crash stemmed from a diabetic seizure while conceding that the blood test shows an illegal level of alcohol.
"We acknowledge that," Brinton told The Daily Progress, "but the primary cause was diabetes."
Brinton recently represented another man accused of putting a vehicle into the wrong lane and seriously injuring other motorists. He penned a lengthy motion urging pretrial release for that other man, Mynor Nasario Diaz Mejía, who also has been threatened with deportation.
Brinton later ceded that case to another attorney, and the case for 26-year-old Diaz Mejía remains pending.
Diaz Mejía told court officials that he had been living no more than six months in Charlottesville when he crashed. Castro Martinez, by contrast, has been living in the greater Charlottesville area for 20 years, according to what he told a magistrate.
However, the recent charges have drawn the attention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has recently prioritized deportation of people living in the U.S. without proper documentation — particularly people with criminal records.
On July 3, Castro Martinez watched intently on video as several legal arguments played out in Albemarle County General District Court as his lawyer, in words translated into Spanish by a courthouse interpreter, tried to get him released under house arrest. However, a June 27 letter from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail indicates that if he "is physically outside of the jail, he will be arrested and taken into ICE custody."
Juries seem to have little tolerance for drunk drivers if the recent case of Tara Jae Steppe is any indication. The 49-year-old Charlottesville woman recently appealed her 2024 conviction by an Albemarle County General District Court judge.
Presenting her case to a circuit court jury in late April, Steppe admitted that she was tested with a 0.10% blood-alcohol level after getting pulled over on Brown’s Gap Turnpike a little over a year ago. However, she argued that she was under duress and fleeing a potentially violent domestic situation. It took the jury just 27 minutes to find her guilty of driving under the influence.
The preliminary hearing for Castro Martinez is set for Aug. 28.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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