A man who previously pleaded guilty to plowing into a crowd of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recruits during a wrong-way crash that killed one and seriously injured others is now headed to trial, authorities said Friday.
Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez, 25, withdrew the guilty plea he entered to vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Laura Walton refused to accept the terms of the deal entered into last month.
Gutierrez was supposed to receive a suspended sentence of eight years in prison, which he would serve only if he violated the terms of his five-year probation. Under that plea deal, Gutierrez was poised to avoid spending time behind bars.
But after hearing victim impact statements Friday, Walton decided she would accept the deal only if Gutierrez served a year in county jail — a condition he rejected.
In April, former Sheriff Alex Villanueva called the plea bargain “an insult to the families of those who died,” and a “slap on the wrist that renders justice meaningless for the victims.”
L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman had said the plea marked a “step toward justice and a measure of closure for the victims,” adding that it could not undo the devastation of that day.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said that Hochman signed off on the conditions of the negotiated plea deal and that Sheriff Robert Luna was consulted on it. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss confidential negotiations.
The November 2022 crash happened after Gutierrez fell asleep while driving to work in South Whittier, his attorney, Alexandra Kazarian previously told The Times. While Villanueva alleged the crash was an intentional attack on law enforcement at the time, no evidence surfaced to support that.
In court Friday, Kazarian said her client suffered from an undiagnosed neurological disorder and may have experienced a seizure at the time of the collision. Kazarian declined to comment further on Friday afternoon.
A Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
