Jurors acquit Crown Point woman in fatal crash on Taft, but convict on driving drunk with child
Jurors gave a split verdict on a dozen charges Thursday night for a Crown Point woman charged with driving drunk, striking and killing a man walking back from work release.
Christian 'Megan' Garza, 30, was acquitted of four felonies, essentially for driving drunk, hitting and killing Andreas Ramos, 27, of Chicago, walking after midnight on Jan. 19, 2020, in the middle of Taft Street in Merrillville.
He was walking back to the Lake County Community Corrections Kimbrough Work Release Center from his McDonald's shift.
However, Garza was convicted of three felonies for driving drunk with her 4-year-old daughter in the vehicle. She was also convicted of three misdemeanors for drunk driving but acquitted of two misdemeanors for OWI while endangering a person. The jury deliberated for 2.5 hours.
Her sentencing is July 30.
Defense lawyer Susan Severtson said Friday there was a pretrial motion of limine – something lawyers can't tell the jury – that prevented prosecutors from saying Ramos was a work release inmate. That was a proper procedure since the law says someone's criminal past shouldn't be held against them in a trial, she said.
All they knew was that he was from Chicago and walking back in the street, she said.
In an earlier text message, Severtson said one of their expert witnesses, namely an accident reconstructionist, made the case for the jury that it was dark, Ramos was hard to see walking in the center lane and Garza had already started to slow down to 31 to 37 mph in the turn lane when she hit him. The speed limit was 45 mph. Any driver would have had under four seconds to react, she argued.
Prosecutors argued her impairment likely affected her reaction time.
Deputy Prosecutors Shannon Phillips and Jacob Brandewie said earlier in the week that Garza had been drinking at her toddler niece's birthday party on Jan. 18, 2020, in St. John. When her parents left, she loaded her own daughter into a car seat and left.
As she was trying to turn on 91st Avenue from Taft Street in Merrillville to avoid the light at 93rd Avenue by the Lake County Government Center, she hit Ramos.
She agreed to a blood draw, which showed she was over the legal limit.
Garza testified Wednesday saying she hit something that 'looked like fur' – referring to part of Ramos' jacket – but didn't get out of the red Volkswagen until her dad showed up, claiming he had to tell her she hit a man.
Ramos is survived by two children, according to his obituary. He was sentenced to two years of work release in December 2019 in a robbery case.
Severtson and co-counsel Roy Dominguez said a bigger issue was why some Kimbrough inmates still walk down the turn lane on Taft Street after 'decades' — a thoroughfare that's only gotten busier over time.
A solution would be to add sidewalks and more street lights, they said.
Lake County Community Corrections Executive Director Kellie Bittorf told the Post-Tribune Tuesday that they try to dissuade people from walking.
They put a Gary bus stop in front of Kimbrough. But the stops and schedules don't always line up. If approved, they allow some inmates to drive or family members to give rides to work. They also hand out safety vests.
'Without having sidewalks on Taft, it does make it challenging,' she said.
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