Drunk, underage, unlicensed: Driver convicted in crash leading to deputy’s death
DANVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — A 21-year-old driver has been found guilty of drunken driving while underage and unlicensed when he crashed into a utility pole, downing a power line that fatally electrocuted a sheriff’s deputy.
Juan Gomez, of Plainfield, was 20 when the crash happened in April. He was found guilty in a bench trial Tuesday in Hendricks Circuit Court in Danville.
Judge Dan Zielinski sentenced Gomez to jail, and, with time served, he could be released as soon as June 23, Hendricks County online jail and court records show.
Hendricks County Deputy Fred Fislar was sent about 11:50 p.m. April 15 to a report of a single-vehicle crash in the 2600 block of South State Road 267. That’s on the north edge of the town of Plainfield in an area with a mix of homes, woods and open land. It’s about a mile north of Main Street/U.S. 40.
Fislar found Gomez had driven a 2009 silver Honda Accord into a utility pole. As Fislar tried to rescue Gomez from the car, a downed power line electrocuted the deputy, who died later at a hospital.
Plainfield police later arrested Gomez as he left Ezkenazi Hospital in Indianapolis, where he was treated for burns.
Gomez came to the United States illegally from Guatemala, according to court documents.
