Nassau Man Pleads Guilty In Deadly Drunk-Driving Crash

LOCUST VALLEY, NY — A Locust Valley man has pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated vehicular homicide after prosecutors said he drunkenly crashed into an ambulette last year, killing a retired NYPD detective who was a patient inside.

Alvaro Gutierrez-Garcia, 29, also pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony second-degree assault and a misdemeanor charge of aggravated DWI. He was expected to be sentenced to six to 12 years in prison Dec. 9 and will have his driver’s license revoked for a year.

"The defendant was nearly three times the legal limit and speeding when he crashed into an ambulette, flipped the emergency vehicle over, and killed retired NYPD detective Denis Motherway, while seriously injuring an EMT," Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement.

On the night of Sept. 1, 2019, Gutierrez-Garcia was speeding in a 1997 Cadillac sedan on Forest Avenue in Glen Cove when he crashed into a private ambulette that was heading south on Walnut Avenue, prosecutors said. The crash caused the ambulette to overturn as it was taking Denis Motherway to Glen Cove Hospital. Motherway, 85, later died of his injuries.

Gutierrez-Garcia had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.22 two hours after the crash. He was not hurt. A passenger in the front seat of the car suffered minor injuries and an emergency medical technician who was inside the ambulette suffered serious injuries. The ambulette driver suffered minor injuries as well.

Motherway's son Timothy was also killed in a drunk-driving crash in 2009.

"The Motherway family has experienced extraordinary losses due to the behavior of drunk drivers, and we continue to express our condolences as they mourn the loss of Denis and Timothy," Singas said.

Nearly 30 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes every day, or roughly one every 50 minutes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Drunk-driving deaths have fallen by a third in the last three decades, but more than 10,000 people are killed in such crashes each year. That includes 10,511 in 2018.