PANAMA CITY — A Panama City man could face up to 15 years in prison after a jury found him responsible for a fatal crash last winter on the Hathaway Bridge and convicted him Wednesday of DUI manslaughter.
Margarito Curiel-Agiorri told the jury he doesn’t believe he caused the crash that killed 27-year-old father of two Ryan Ramsey. He blamed the crash on almost everything but the alcohol, which he said actually made him a more careful driver that night because he didn’t want to be stopped by police.
“Everything falls on me, and I feel I am not guilty of anything,” Curiel-Agoirri said through an interpreter.
He blamed the construction work on the bridge that night, saying if there had been a barrier between eastbound and westbound traffic instead of a 10-foot wide safety lane and traffic barrels nobody would’ve been hurt.
He denied crossing that 10-foot wide safety lane, saying he was driving “where I was supposed to.”
The translation led to some confusion during cross-examination from prosecutor Bob Sombathy, who at one point believed Curiel-Agiorri was blaming Ramsey for the crash and asked if that was correct.
“No,” Curiel-Agiorri said. “We have to be fair. ... It just happened. It was a bad moment.”
Curiel-Agiorri said he doesn’t remember much of what happened after the crash. He didn’t remember giving a blood sample at the hospital after the crash that showed his blood-alcohol content was .22, nearly three times the legal limit to drive, which is .08.
“He literally has no idea what happened as he sits in this courtroom today,” Sombathy told jurors during his closing arguments.
Doug White, Curiel-Agiorri’s attorney, argued the conclusions of the investigators were conjecture, and the statements his client made to police in English after the crash were tainted by Curiel-Agiorri’s lack of a firm grasp on the language. Prosecutors based their theory of the case on misinterpretations, White argued.
The jury of six women deliberated less than 90 minutes before finding him guilty as charged of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide, but the later charge was consolidated to avoid double jeopardy issues.
“I feel good about the outcome,” said Mary Ramsey, Ryan Ramsey’s mother. Watching the two-day trial was difficult for her, she said, and she was glad to have it behind her.
Curiel-Agiorri could be sentenced to up to 15 years when he is sentenced, and sentencing guidelines call for a minimum sentence of 124 months, Sombathy said.
Judge Dedee Costello scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 3.