A Diamond Bar man who pleaded guilty last month to driving into a group of law enforcement trainees near Whittier, killing a Los Angeles County sheriff’s recruit, withdrew his plea Friday after a judge indicated she planned to send him to jail for a year as part of his sentence.
After hearing emotional victim impact statements Friday from some of the recruits and their family members, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Laura Walton said she planned to add the jail term to the plea deal for Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez that had been negotiated by attorneys.
Under last month’s plea agreement, the 25-year-old defendant was expected to receive five years probation and a suspended eight-year state prison term that he would only face if he violated any of the terms of his probation in connection with his guilty plea to one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and nine felony counts of reckless driving causing injury.
The judge said she believed that probation was the “appropriate sentence,” but said that the plea deal would now come with “365 days in jail” and gave Gutierrez a few hours to consider whether he would accept that or to withdraw his plea.
Gutierrez’s attorney, Alexandra Kazarian, noted following a lengthy afternoon break in the court proceedings that a defense expert concluded that Gutierrez was suffering from a “previously undiagnosed neurological disorder at the time of the incident.”
“We cannot accept the court’s offer and will proceed to trial,” she said on behalf of her client..
Deputy District Attorney Michael Blake told the judge that the prosecution wants its own expert to review the defense’s claim.
The judge noted that the previous plea is “now withdrawn,” ordering Gutierrez to return to the Norwalk courtroom Aug. 26 for a pretrial hearing.
The charges stem from a Nov. 16, 2022, crash in which 76 members of Sheriff’s Academy Class 464 were on a training run along Mills Avenue near Bentongrove Drive when Gutierrez, driving southbound in an unincorporated area near Whittier, crossed into northbound lanes and struck members of the group, prosecutors said.
Twenty-five recruits were injured, including 10 who suffered serious injuries. One of them, Alejandro Martinez-Inzunza, 27, died from his injuries on July 28, 2023, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Martinez-Inzunza’s mother said through a Spanish interpreter, “This pain from losing my son will not go away. I suffer every day.”
“It’s not fair, your honor, for that person to be free,” she said of Gutierrez. “I want justice. I want him to pay.”
The judge told the woman that she cannot even imagine the pain that her family is experiencing, and that there is “no amount of time that I can give him” that would take away the family’s pain.
“I am so, so sorry for your loss,” Walton said. “This is one of those days that justice does not feel just, ma’am.”
Martinez-Inzunza’s sister said she was in court to be the “voice of my brother … the only one who lost his life,” while noting that the crash permanently changed the lives of many others.
“He spent nine months in the ICU fighting for his life,” Dayanna Martinez told the judge. “This was an avoidable accident.”
Of the defendant, she said, “After today, He gets to go on with his life. I don’t think that’s fair.”
The judge also heard from seven of the injured recruits and some of their family members.
Lauren Preciado said she was severely injured in the crash, “spent four months trapped in a hospital bed” and has been forced to accept that she will never wear a sheriff’s uniform.
“This is all because of you, Nicholas,” she told the defendant, adding that she was expected to accept a probationary sentence for Gutierrez when it was a “life sentence for me.”
She said she hoped that he would have to spend some time behind bars or sit through a trial.
Gutierrez looked straight ahead in court, refusing pleas by some of those who spoke to look at them.
Another one of the injured recruits, Jose Luis Arias Jr., said his academy class was “changed terribly forever” by the crash, with the former Marine noting that he “could see bodies … everywhere like a combat zone” when he regained consciousness after the collision.
He noted that he spent the first six months in a hospital bed, and has undergone 16 surgeries — with additional operations expected, and that his dream of becoming a sheriff’s deputy is dead.
“I’m livid that you will be walking free with no custody time,” he told the defendant before the judge told the packed courtroom that she wanted to add the jail term. “We’re all getting a slap in the face.”
Rachel MacDonald said she felt like the luckiest person alive that day on her birthday while training to become a sheriff’s deputy when things changed in the blink of an eye, telling the judge that she is living a “yearslong nightmare … caused by Nicholas Gutierrez.”
Others said they were injured, but were eventually able to continue with their law enforcement careers and graduate from the sheriff’s academy.
“It permanently changed the lives of everybody who was there,” one of the former recruits said, while another noted that his family was supposed to attend his aunt’s funeral but wound up remaining by his side at the hospital.
After hearing the statements, the judge said she was informed that a full investigation was done into the crash and that it is her understanding that it was “not a willful, intentional act by Nicholas Gutierrez.” She said he “has the right to withdraw his guilty plea and proceed to trial” as a result of her “additional offer” of a 365-day jail term, noting that she had changed the negotiated offer.
Gutierrez was initially arrested hours after the crash, but was released a day later, with sheriff’s officials saying the complex case needed more extensive investigation. He was re-arrested in November 2023 by the California Highway Patrol and released on $500,000 bond within less than two hours.
Authorities said a yearlong investigation found no evidence the crash was intentional and determined that Gutierrez likely fell asleep at the wheel before drifting into the recruits.
Gutierrez — who remains out of custody on bail — had waived his right to having his case heard by a jury in January so the trial would be heard by the judge.