On May 27, 2007, Mario Roberto Diaz-Mourillo was heading north in his Saturn on the southbound one-way section of Highway 441 when he hit a Lincoln Towncar head-on. Two of the passengers inside the Lincoln suffered serious injuries – an elderly woman lost vision in her right eye and an elderly man suffered permanent damage to his knee and hip. Diaz-Mourillo fled the scene on foot soon after the collision. According to an eyewitness, alcohol was apparently a contributing factor in the accident. Special agent Jeff Carlisle took the lead in identifying the driver of the Saturn, whose name was not yet known. Carlisle determined that Diaz-Mourillo had been driving the Saturn, that he’d immigrated to the U.S. from Honduras about 10 years previously, and that he was in the United States illegally. Carlisle also learned that Diaz-Mourillo had been convicted on two prior occasions for DUI, with one conviction occurring less than a month prior to this accident. A two-count indictment was obtained, charging Diaz-Mourillo with aggravated assault. He was found and arrested about three weeks after the accident. On March 18th, after changing his original plea of not guilty to guilty, Diaz-Mourillo was sentenced in federal court to 48 months in jail, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $600 in restitution to the victims. He was also notified that he will face deportation back to Honduras following his incarceration in a federal penitentiary. Diaz-Mourillo, who has fathered two young children in the U.S., sought a downward variance from the sentencing guidelines, stating that incarceration in addition to being deported was akin to cruel and unusual punishment. The district judge ruled in favor of the government and the variance was denied.
