{"id":784948,"date":"2026-05-09T19:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/784948\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T19:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:50:27","slug":"la-man-withdraws-guilty-plea-for-wrong-way-crash-that-killed-police-cadet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/784948\/","title":{"rendered":"LA man withdraws guilty plea for wrong-way crash that killed police cadet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The California driver who <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/11\/21\/driver-who-mowed-down-injured-25-la-sheriffs-cadets-fell-asleep-at-the-wheel-lawyer\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">admitted to mowing down 75 sheriff\u2019s recruits <\/a>on an early morning jog \u2014 killing one and leaving several others as amputees \u2014 withdrew his guilty plea Friday after learning it meant spending a year behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez, 25, had been poised to avoid a jail stint as part of a plea deal until a Los Angeles judge nixed the agreement after hearing emotional testimony from those whose lives were dramatically altered by the 2022 crash, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-05-08\/judge-rejects-no-jail-plea-la-county-deputy-recruits-case\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the LA Times reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Laura Walton told Gutierrez she would only accept his plea deal if he spent a year in county jail.<\/p>\n<p>Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez withdrew his guilty plea this week. Fox News<\/p>\n<p>Gutierrez\u2019s lawyers, however, said the judge\u2019s about face was a dealbreaker and withdrew his admission \u2014 meaning the case will now head to trial.<\/p>\n<p>He pleaded guilty last month to one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and nine felony counts of reckless driving on a highway causing a specified injury as part of a bargain that suspended the court-imposed eight-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he would have been placed on probation for five years, an arrangement ex-LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva slammed as \u201can insult to the families of those who died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alexandra Kazarian, Gutierrez\u2019s lawyer, argued Friday that her client suffered from an undiagnosed neurological disorder and may have <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/11\/10\/news\/driver-charged-with-killing-one-sheriffs-cadet-injuring-24\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">experienced a seizure at the time of the deadly collision.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Alejandro Martinez-Inzunza was killed in the wrong-way crash. Los Angeles County Sheriff&#8217;s Department<\/p>\n<p>Gutierrez had previously claimed he feel asleep at the wheel. <\/p>\n<p>Kazarian did not immediately respond to The Post\u2019s requests for further comment.<\/p>\n<p>Witnesses at the time said Gutierrez\u2019s SUV was traveling between 30 and 40 mph when it swerved onto the wrong side of the road and plowed into the group of recruits that were jogging as part of their training at the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department academy.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 25 cadets sustained injuries, with 10 seriously injured and several losing limbs.<\/p>\n<p>Alejandro Martinez-Inzunza died eight months later from his injuries. <\/p>\n<p>Gutierrez allegedly fell asleep behind the wheel when he swerved into the 75 recruits on a morning jog. KTLA<\/p>\n<p>Villanueva initially alleged the crash was intentional, but detectives later ruled there was no evidence to support his claims.<\/p>\n<p>Gutierrez is due back in court Aug. 26 for a pretrial hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California driver who admitted to mowing down 75 sheriff\u2019s recruits on an early morning jog \u2014 killing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":784949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,5303,281,2961,224,5337,164829,7207,1154],"class_list":{"0":"post-784948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-car-crashes","11":"tag-court","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-plea-deals","16":"tag-police","17":"tag-us-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116546360550592739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}