Left inset: Jose Gutierrez in court (KTNV/YouTube). Right inset: Adilene Rincon (GoFundMe). Background: The scene of the crash that Jose Gutierrez is accused of intentionally causing, which left his pregnant girlfriend Adilene Rincon dead (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department).
A Nevada teen accused of causing an "intentional" 12-car crash with his Infiniti after slamming into vehicles stopped at a red light — killing his pregnant girlfriend and two other drivers — must face murder charges, according to a Las Vegas judge.
19-year-old Jose Gutierrez, who was allegedly going 100 mph in a 45 mph zone, was denied a bid on Wednesday to have the charges dropped. He has been charged with murder with a deadly weapon, reckless driving resulting in death, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, and battery in connection with the deaths of Adilene Rincon, 20, Edward Garcia, 38, and Vanessa Vasquez, 25.
"The evidence of his intent can be, as we know, inferred from the circumstances," Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Portz told the judge, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"He drove in a straight line directly at a group of vehicles stopped at a red light, and that takes far more willfulness, deliberation, and intent than merely pulling the trigger of a gun, which is an obvious example of first-degree murder," the prosecutor said about the defendant, per local ABC affiliate KTNV. "There can be no other reasonable inference from his conduct than he intended to drive directly into those vehicles."
Court documents filed by prosecutors say Gutierrez "accelerated at full throttle for nearly a mile, reached speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, and drove directly and intentionally into a line of vehicles stopped at a red light without braking or swerving, causing multiple deaths and serious bodily injury," according to the Review-Journal. He is currently being held without bail on felony charges of murder with a deadly weapon, reckless driving resulting in death, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, and battery.
"His conduct, through the testimony of witnesses who said he drove directly into those people — one of the witnesses compared it to his time in the Middle East, where he said it's the same as watching a terrorist drive a bomb into a military target," Portz explained at Wednesday's hearing, per KTNV footage from inside the courtroom.
"He said, 'I've seen accidents before, you see them swerving or attempting to avoid the accident, none of that happened with this guy,'" Portz recounted. "He drove straight, head on, into these people at full speed."
Prosecutors said that after his arrest, Gutierrez was "not impaired by alcohol or drugs" when he caused the crash, according to local NBC affiliate KSNV. He was allegedly driving a silver 2011 Infiniti G37 with Rincon, 20, his pregnant girlfriend riding with him as a passenger. The other victims, Garcia and Vasquez, were drivers at the red light; Garcia died at the scene and Vasquez succumbed to her injuries several weeks later after being hospitalized.
"The only thing I've seen close to that — I was in two wars, I'm from the Middle East originally, I'm from Israel, I've seen a lot of terror suicide bombers — that was the closest thing," alleged witness Assaf Cohen at a December hearing, according to KTNV. "The way he drove into the cars is the way a terrorist drives into a military base."
Gutierrez's defense attorney, Thomas Moskal, argued in court filings and at Wednesday's hearing that the murder charges should be dismissed due to a lack of evidence showing the teen's intent.
"At the preliminary hearing on this matter, the state was unable to provide any evidence that would support a reasonable inference that [Gutierrez] acted with willfulness, deliberation or premeditation in the instant vehicle collision," Moskal wrote in one filing, according to the Review-Journal.
"The assumption that [Gutierrez's] driving conduct alone illustrates these actions is unreasonable, weak and speculative," Moskal insisted. "Similarly, the state did not provide any evidence of express or implied malice or a conscious disregard for human lives on the part of the [Gutierrez]."
In court on Wednesday, Moskal argued that it "would have been different if they uncovered some kind of motive or some evidence of intent, but the single inference they're relying on is, 'Judge, allow this to proceed to jury trial on first-degree murder because he was driving fast, he didn't brake, and he crashed into some cars.'"
District Judge Michelle Leavitt disagreed and reportedly denied the request to dismiss Gutierrez's murder charges immediately after the arguments were made.
Court records obtained by KTNV show that Gutierrez was cited for speeding in October after police caught him going 52 mph in a 35 mph zone. He was also arrested in April for intimidating a police officer who responded to a report of a woman claiming she was hit by Gutierrez.
"What's up foo," Gutierrez allegedly told the cop.
"I'll f—ing shoot you," he said, according to court documents. "I'll kill you."
Gutierrez is due back in court on March 4.