Illegal immigrant, who already had three DUIs, killed 4-year-old Josie Bluhm after running a red light. Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa was driving with a suspended license after he received the last DUI in 2003. Tell me, why did he ever get a license to begin with and why wasn’t he deported after the first DUI? When is America going to get outraged? -Ed.
The suspended driver and illegal immigrant blew a red light and slammed a pickup into a minivan near 180th Street and West Center Road in May – killing 4-year-old van passenger Josie Bluhm.
For those actions, Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa pleaded no contest Tuesday to driving under suspension, a felony, and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide.
And Rangel-Ochoa remains distraught, his attorney said.
He isn’t the only one. Josie’s loved ones, including parents Kyle and Jayme Bluhm, have had to carry on without their 4-year-old middle child – a blonde-haired, blue-eyed bundle of fun.
Jayme Bluhm was driving the couple’s three children, then ages 5, 4 and 1, to day care on May 12, when the crash happened, prosecutors said.”All of these cases are horrible,” said prosecutor Matt Kuhse, who handles Douglas County’s motor-vehicle homicide cases. “But it’s particularly troubling when it’s a child who is so, so young – especially when her life ended in such a violent way.” Especially when the person charged with killing her should have never been in the country to begin with. -Ed.
Rangel-Ochoa’s case has been marked with questions about why he was driving and why he was still in the country after three drunken-driving convictions.
Rangel-Ochoa’s attorney, Joe Lopez-Wilson, said Rangel-Ochoa, 27, is torn up over his actions – and has little explanation for why he was driving.
Lopez-Wilson said Rangel-Ochoa got behind the wheel of the pickup because the truck’s owner wasn’t going to work that day. Rangel-Ochoa and his two passengers were headed to work at a construction site. The owner of the company employing them should be raided and fined. -Ed.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20090930/NEWS01/709309953