PROVO — A man who sped through Provo, eluding police and weaving through traffic, pleaded guilty to automobile homicide Tuesday — the result of his high-speed crime.
Steven Louis Phillippe, 50, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a second-degree felony of automobile homicide and failing to stop at the command of police, a third-degree felony.
The charges stem from a chase on June 15 that ended with the death of Miguel Martinez-Montero, a husband and father of two.
The situation began when Phillippe's daughters called police to report that their suicidal father was gone. Police found him 15 minutes later driving around Provo and tried to stop him to talk with him, said Deputy Utah County Attorney Curtis Larson.
Phillippe refused to stop and ended up leading several police officers on a chase which reached 50 and 60 miles an hour on 1720 North in Provo, then onto State Street.
At one point, Phillippe sped into the parking lot of an abandoned gas station at the bottom of the State Street hill in Provo and lost control of his car.
He pulled out of the lot going the same speed and crashed into Montero, who was traveling south on State Street.
"This other vehicle was hit with such force that it was thrown over two lanes of traffic, plus the little parking safety area and over the sidewalk and forced into a concrete barrier that runs the whole length of State Street," Larson said.
The car then bounced back into the lanes of traffic. Montero was taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, where he died minutes later.
Larson said that tests after the accident showed Phillippe had meth in his system, which they allege made him "incapable of safely operating a motor vehicle on the roadway."
Defense attorney Debbie Hill requested a full presentence report before Phillippe is sentenced on Oct. 16.
Judge Steven Hansen agreed to concurrent sentencing, meaning the two sentences will run at the same time, as part of the deal in which Phillippe agreed to plead guilty. However, should Phillippe go to prison, Hansen reminded him the Board of Pardons is not bound by any previous agreements.
Larson said he spoke with Montero's family and said they accept the deal.
But prison or not, nothing will ever be the same, a family representative said.
"Of course we can't ask for the death penalty for him — a life for a life — but that's not going to help anything," said Alex Maynez, representative for Montero's family. "(His wife's) life is just forever changed completely upside down. There are two young kids back in Mexico who are going to miss out on having a dad."
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