MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Locust Valley man pled guilty today to the top count of aggravated vehicular homicide and other charges for driving drunk and crashing into an ambulette in 2019, killing the patient inside, a retired NYPD Detective.
Alvaro Gutierrez-Garcia, 29, pled guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide (a B felony), assault in the second degree (a D violent felony) and aggravated driving while intoxicated (an unclassified misdemeanor) before Judge Robert McDonald and is expected to be sentenced to six to 12 years in prison on December 9. The defendant will also have his driver’s license revoked for one 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,” DA Singas said. “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.”
DA Singas said that on September 1, 2019, at approximately 11:45 pm, the defendant was driving a 1997 Cadillac sedan eastbound at a high rate of speed on Forest Avenue in Glen Cove, when he struck a private ambulette driving southbound on Walnut Avenue. The force of the crash caused the ambulette, which was transporting Denis Motherway to Glen Cove Hospital, to overturn. Further investigation revealed that the defendant had a blood alcohol concentration of .22, approximately two hours after the crash.
Gutierrez-Garcia did not sustain any injuries during the crash, while his front-seat passenger suffered minor injuries. The EMT inside the ambulette suffered serious physical injuries, while the driver of the ambulette suffered minor injuries.
Denis Motherway, 85, the patient inside the ambulette, later died of injuries suffered during the crash. Mr. Motherway was a retired NYPD Detective whose son, Timothy Motherway, was also killed in a drunk driving crash in March 2009.
Senior District Attorneys Lisa Corso and Tara DePalo of DA Singas’ Vehicular Crimes Bureau are prosecuting this case. The defendant is represented by Jeff Groder, Esq.