Court orders prison for woman who caused fatal accident on Moscoso Bridge

Mayra Enid Nevárez Torres, at left, was convicted of driving against traffic with a blood alcohol level of 0.29%, which caused the death of Justin Rafael Santos Delanda and serious injuries to Keven Xilef Monserrate Gandía.

By The Star Staff

The island Court of Appeals overturned a house arrest sentence against Mayra Enid Nevárez Torres and ordered her to serve 15 years in prison for causing a fatal accident while driving drunk in November 2021 on the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge.

“The Court of First Instance erred in granting the house arrest sentence, as the legislative mandate contained in the Vehicle and Traffic Law required it to impose the prison sentence, depriving it of the discretion to consider alternative sentences,” an appeals court special panel determined.

Nevárez Torres was convicted of driving against traffic with a blood alcohol level of 0.29%, which caused the death of Justin Rafael Santos Delanda and serious injuries to Keven Xilef Monserrate Gandía.

The Court of First Instance judge had replaced the fixed sentence of 15 years in prison with a sentence of house arrest with an ankle monitor. However, the Court of Appeals concluded that that decision violated the express mandate of the Traffic Law, which requires imprisonment without the option of an alternative sentence in such cases.

“The mandatory language of Article 7.06 of the Traffic Law, which mandates 15 years of imprisonment, and the legislative context that seeks to eradicate deaths due to drunk drivers, demonstrate that there is no room to impose alternative sentences such as house arrest,” the panel added.

The court also noted that the original decision ignored the victims’ pain and focused solely on the convict’s rehabilitation arguments. Nevárez Torres must now serve her sentence in prison.