Driving without a Liecense one time, No Insurance another time, DUI another time, identity theft yet another time. Now 2 Young Woman have paid the price.
When will it stop :(
Suspect in crash that killed 2 had alcohol-related convictions
ABy JON FRANK AND GILLIAN GAYNAIR, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 3, 2007 | Last updated 6:06 PM Apr. 3
VIRGINIA BEACH - A man accused of killing two high school students Friday night in a car crash has a record of alcohol-related convictions in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
Alfredo Ramos, charged with manslaughter in the deaths of Allison Kunhardt, 17, and Tessa Tranchant, 16, was convicted this year of DUI in Chesapeake and of public intoxication in Virginia Beach.
Ramos, who admitted in court Monday that he is in the country illegally, also was convicted in Chesapeake last year of public drunkenness.
Background:
Driver charged with manslaughter after crash kills two Beach teens
Update: Ramos was scheduled to appear this morning in front of Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Deborah Rawls for a bond hearing, but the motion for the hearing was withdrawn.
Two 2007 Chesapeake convictions - a seat-belt violation and identity theft - appear not to be alcohol-related.
Additional Chesapeake charges - driving without a license and having no insurance - were withdrawn earlier this year.
On Monday morning, Ramos, 22, was arraigned on the manslaughter charges in Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
His 25-year-old brother, who lives in Norfolk, also is here illegally and asked not to be identified because of his immigration status. He said he talked to his brother by phone Friday before the accident and, after learning he had been drinking, warned Ramos not to drive.
Afterward, his brother told him he had no memory of the crash. He learned from authorities that he had killed two people, his brother said.
Ramos, who was born in Mexico of Guatemalan parents, has been in the United States for about seven years.
Most recently, Ramos was employed as a waiter at Mi Casita, a popular Mexican restaurant on Bonney Road in Virginia Beach.
Police said speed and alcohol were factors in Friday's crash, which occurred at Kings Grant Road and Virginia Beach Boulevard.
Police spokesman Jimmy Barnes said a 1998 two-door Mitsubishi, driven by Ramos, was traveling westbound on Virginia Beach Boulevard when it crashed into the rear of a 1994 Plymouth driven by Kunhardt.
The Plymouth was stopped at a traffic light at the intersection, Barnes said.
Kunhardt and Tranchant were pinned in the wreckage and had to be cut free before paramedics could tend to them.
One of the girls died at the scene; the other was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at a hospital, Barnes said. Both had been wearing seat belts, he said.
Ramos also was wearing a seat belt and suffered only minor injuries, Barnes said.
On Monday, family and friends of the victims were planning a vigil for tonight at Mount Trashmore.
The candlelight ceremony, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., will be held on the Independence Boulevard side of the park. Family, friends and classmates have been invited to attend.
Janice Lane, a minister and Kunhardt's aunt, will lead a short service.
Kunhardt was a junior at First Colonial High School. Tranchant, a close friend, was a freshman at Kellam High School.
First Colonial Principal Dale Holt said the school has canceled plans to host the Every 15 Minutes program Wednesday and Thursday. The program raises awareness of drunken driving by removing a student from class every 15 minutes as if they had been killed.
"Our kids are living Every 15 Minutes as we speak," Holt said Monday.
At Kellam High School, programs on drunken driving already planned for April and May will go on as scheduled, administrators said.
Ramos faces deportation if he is convicted, according to U.S. immigration laws. People who are deported for criminal convictions have either committed felonies or "crimes of moral turpitude," including crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape and most theft crimes, U.S. immigration law states.
Staff writers Duane Bourne and Lauren Roth contributed to this report.
Reach Jon Frank at (757) 222-5122 or jon.frank@pilotonline.com.
Reach Gillian Gaynair at (757) 222-3895 or gillian.gaynair@pilotonline.com.
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