Honduran Illegal Facing Deportation Charged in Crash That Killed College Girl in Virginia
A Honduran illegal alien who arrived to the U.S. as an ‘unaccompanied minor’ and was ordered deported has been charged in connection with a car crash that killed an American teen in Virginia, according to reports.
The deadly wreck unfolded in Chesapeake on February 19, but the suspect’s immigration background just came to light this week in a report published by The Virginian-Pilot.
Authorities say Elvis Jamir Cruz-Ferrera, 18, was traveling southbound on Interstate 664 when his vehicle struck that of Lauryn Ni’Kole Leonard, 19, who was driving in the same direction.
Both drivers lost control and Leonard was killed when her Toyota Solara slammed into a guardrail.
Cruz-Ferrera was injured but later released from hospital.
He was charged with felony reckless driving, driving without a license, driving without proof of insurance, and authorities discovered his vehicle had not been inspected in more than five years.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately lodged a detainer against Cruz-Ferrera with the Chesapeake City Jail, where he is still being held.
Virginia State Police added a charge of involuntary manslaughter some 10 days after the crash.
“Cruz-Ferrera waived a probable cause hearing July 2, with a Chesapeake Circuit Court grand jury scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to indict him on the manslaughter charge,” The Virginian-Pilot reports.
“Prosecutors dropped the other charges when Cruz-Ferrera waived his preliminary hearing, court records show. Assistant Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney Mark McKinney declined to comment on the case last week.”
Cruz-Ferrera, a citizen of Honduras, illegally crossed the southern border in 2016 as an 11-year-old ‘unaccompanied minor’ near McAllen, Texas.
He was taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol at the time and quickly released by ICE with an order to appear before a federal immigration judge in 2018 in Dallas, TX.
Cruz-Ferrera skipped that hearing and was ordered deported in absentia.
However, he remained in the U.S., living with his mother and siblings in Portsmouth, VA, while attending high school.
Cruz-Ferrera was pulled over for multiple traffic violations in the months leading up to the fatal crash, but apparently his immigration status was not investigated.
Lauryn Ni’Kole Leonard’s obituary indicates she was an avid contributor to her community, a hard worker, and had made the dean’s list at Old Dominion University.
When asked about the federal government’s failure to remove Cruz-Ferrera from the U.S, Leonard’s brother Eric Hargrove reportedly said, “I don’t want to say anything that sounds like far right or far left.”
“But I would just say that it’s a possibility that this wouldn’t have happened if the deportation happened when it was supposed to.”
This article was originally published at InfoWars.com
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