Man formally charged in death of Colts player and Uber driver
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Formal charges have been filed against the man accused of killing an Indianapolis Colts player and an Uber driver in a drunk driving crash.
Manuel Orrego-Savala, 37, faces four felony charges for the deaths of Colts player Edwin Jackson and Uber driver Jeff Monroe. The charges are two counts of failure to remain at the scene of an accident causing death and two counts of causing death when operating a motor vehicle with an ACE of at least .15.
“We will vigorously prosecute this matter, just like any comparable crime, not because of the immigration status of an accused, but because two innocent men lost their lives in this horrible incident,” said Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry in a statement. “We are disheartened that ghoulish and inappropriate public commentary has politicized this tragedy. Much of such commentary, including tweets by the President, fails to acknowledge that both Edwin Jackson and Jeffrey Monroe lost their lives on Sunday. We will simply seek justice on behalf of the families of those two victims.”
Police said Orrego-Savala had a BAC of .239 when he struck and killed the pair on the interstate this weekend.
Court documents released on Wednesday morning state that Indiana State Police troopers were dispatched just before 4 a.m. to a crash on I-70 near Holt Road. The responding trooper said that as he was approaching the area, a vehicle in front of him made a sudden swerve, then the trooper struck an object in the roadway, according to court documents. That object was the body of one of the victims.
A witness in the area noticed a Hispanic male walking away from the crash scene and told him to “freeze,” then told the trooper that it was that man that had crashed his pickup truck into Monroe’s car.
Orrego-Savala was transported to Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital to have his blood drawn. His alcohol concentration equivalent registered at .191 just after 5:30 a.m. Sunday.
He was then taken to Marion County intake. When he was taken in, court documents described him as “his overall demeanor showing no concern or remorse for the victims of the crash.”
Court documents state that Orrego-Savala admitted to being the driver. It was then that he presented a Mexican Consulate Identification Card with the name Alex Gonsales Cabrera. It has since been discovered that Gonsales Cabrera was an alias for the twice-deported Orrego-Savala. 24-Hour News 8 reported on Tuesday that Orrego-Savala had a DUI conviction in California in 2005 and was twice arrested by deportation officers in California.
On Tuesday, ICE provided this immigration history for Orrego-Savala:
- On or about July 1, 2004: He entered the country illegally without inspection
- Oct. 27, 2006: ICE deportation officers arrested him in San Francisco for being an alien present without permission or parole
- Nov. 28, 2006: He was transported to the Eloy (Arizona) Detention Facility
- Dec. 20, 2006: He was ordered to be removed to Guatemala by an immigration judge in Eloy, Arizona
- Jan. 17, 2007: He was removed to Guatemala
- March 26, 2009: He was arrested by deportation officers in San Francisco
- May 12, 2009: He was removed to Guatemala by ICE officers in Phoenix
Additionally, he had been arrested in Boone County in 2017 for driving while never having received a license.
On Tuesday evening, U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler announced that he was filing federal charges against Orrego-Savala for illegal re-entry by a previously deported alien.
“The defendant in this case allegedly re-entered the country illegally for the second time before he put the public safety of Indianapolis at risk and took the lives of two innocent men early Sunday morning,” said Minkler in a statement.
In the federal case, Orrego-Savala faces up to 10 years of imprisonment if convicted. The immigration charges will remain pending until the conclusion of all state matters.
