Saturday, July 11, 2015

Teen driver charged with second-degree vehicular homicideafter 15-year-old dies in wreck


By Nick Watson nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com @NickWatsonTimes
POSTED: July 7, 2015 3:23 p.m.
SCOTT ROGERS/The Times 

Flowers and candles are placed Monday on the ground beside a tree near Chicopee Baptist Church, where 15-year-old Alfredo Juarez died Thursday. The Gainesville boy died after the car he was riding in traveled off the road and struck the tree, according to the Georgia State Patrol. 

The driver in a Thursday wreck that killed a 15-year-old Gainesville boy has been charged with second-degree vehicular homicide. 

Marco A. Cruz, 19, of Gainesville, turned himself into the Hall County Jail Tuesday morning after a Georgia State Patrol trooper obtained warrants Monday night, according to the GSP. 

Alfredo Juarez, a passenger in Cruz’s car, was killed in the crash on Atlanta Highway near Chicopee Baptist Church. Cruz, according to GSP, drove northbound on Atlanta Highway and lost control of his Honda Civic. 

After traveling off the road, the car struck a construction barrel, according to the GSP. 

“(The Honda) rotated counterclockwise and struck a tree with the right passenger side door on (the Honda),” GSP Cpl. Dallas Van Scoten wrote in an email. 

Cruz suffered minor injuries. 

Van Scoten wrote that rain and “probably a little speed” were potential factors in what caused Cruz to lose control of the vehicle.