Investigators: hit-run driver was impaired
Authorities filed DUI manslaughter charges against the man who crashed into a car driven by Mayor Pam Iorio's bodyguard.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published February 28, 2006
TAMPA - Investigators say Jose Luis Espinosa was impaired by alcohol and likely speeding when he ran a red light at lunchtime Saturday and slammed into Detective Juan Serrano's city-issued Ford Taurus, killing the veteran police officer.
Espinosa had a blood alcohol level of .163 when he crashed into Serrano, bodyguard to Mayor Pam Iorio, the Sheriff's Office reported.
That's twice the limit at which Florida law presumes a driver impaired.
Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said Espinosa, a Mexico native living in Gibsonton, showed signs of intoxication when investigators arrested him Saturday. They took a blood sample at the scene to be sure.
After getting test results Tuesday, authorities charged Espinosa, 35, with DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. Jailed since Saturday, he was already charged with leaving the scene of a deadly crash and driving without a valid license in a crash involving serious injury.
Investigators say Espinosa was driving a 1996 Pontiac Grand Prix west on Gibsonton Drive when he ran a red light at 12:45 p.m. Saturday, just as Serrano exited Interstate 75 onto Gibsonton Drive.
The Pontiac hit Serrano's unmarked 2001 Taurus on the driver's side. Espinosa and his passenger got out of the Pontiac and ran off, Callaway said. A police dog quickly found Espinosa hiding near the crash scene.
Deputies later found passenger Marco Antonio Rosas-Galves, 26. He is being treated as a witness and has not been charged.
Callaway said detectives have not finished reconstructing the crash, so they do not yet have an estimate of how fast Espinosa was driving.
"But we believe speed was a factor," he said.
Serrano was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital but could not be saved. He was 49, married and stepfather to three.
Dr. Les Chrostowski, associate Hillsborough County medical examiner, said the crash caused lacerations to major blood vessels and organs, including Serrano's kidney and spleen. He also had a closed head injury, Chrostowski said Tuesday.
Serrano, Iorio's bodyguard since she took office three years ago, had been with the mayor at the Bank of America Gasparilla Distance Classic Saturday morning.
Tampa's mayoral bodyguard dates back to Mayor Sandy Freedman, Dick Greco's predecessor. As soon as Freedman took office, she set up security measures including a rotation of plain-clothes officers charged with protecting her.
Within a few months, one full-time officer was assigned to be Freedman's "executive protection officer." The practice has been in place ever since.
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker does not have a bodyguard.
Serrano was akin to a Secret Service officer for Iorio, reviewing security at venues where she appeared and doing background checks of people she might meet. He drove her to various engagements in a 2003 Lincoln Town Car, said police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.
Saturday morning, Serrano used the Lincoln to get Iorio to and from the Gasparilla race. But then he headed home in his city-issued Taurus. Like all Ford Taurus patrol cars now in use, it does not have side impact air bags, McElroy said.
McElroy said side air bags were not offered in the current Taurus models used by officers. They are offered in the 2005 models, but the department has not purchased any of those yet, she said.
As detectives continued to investigate the crash, seeking witnesses and reconstructing the collision, city officials and relatives planned Serrano's funeral services.
A public funeral mass will be held at 9 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 509 N Florida Ave. in downtown Tampa.
Serrano's family plans a private ceremony at Boza & Roel Funeral Home in the afternoon. They expect to return his ashes to his native Puerto Rico.
The family requests that any donations be sent in his honor to the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial Fund, www.nleomf.com
-- Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com