L.A.:Man Deliberately Runs Over Girlfriend And Uncle

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-palisades30jan30,1,1531579.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Night out in L.A. turns deadly

A man allegedly forced his lover and uncle out of his car in the rain,
and ran them down.
By Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 30, 2008
It's a case that gives entirely new meaning to the phrase "vehicular
homicide."

After a night of drinking at a Silver Lake club, police say, Carlos
Gutierrez got so angry at his girlfriend and his uncle early Monday
morning that he ordered them out of his car and into a pounding
rainstorm. Then he threatened to run them over.

Los Angeles Police Department investigators say it's unlikely that
either Gutierrez's girlfriend or his uncle thought the 25-year-old
would actually run them down, but according to police, that's exactly
what happened. As the pair began walking away from the car, Gutierrez
allegedly gunned the engine of his Honda Prelude and plowed into them.

Yet it's what Gutierrez allegedly did next that has some veteran
homicide investigators scratching their heads.

According to police, Gutierrez piled his mortally wounded girlfriend,
Yolanda Martinez, 37, into the vehicle's back seat and propped up his
uncle in the passenger seat. Then he drove to a gas station.

The pit stop proved to be the alleged killer's undoing. As Gutierrez
reportedly struggled to operate a gas pump in Pacific Palisades, his
uncle -- whose leg was shattered -- dragged himself out of the car and
began screaming for help, authorities say. That's when people started
calling 911.

Martinez was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities say. The uncle
was taken to a local hospital, where he was treated for a compound leg
fracture.

On Tuesday, Gutierrez was being held without bail after being booked
on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

The incident was, even by Los Angeles standards, an odd one, officers
said.

Odder still is the fact that investigators have yet to determine
exactly where the slaying occurred.

The Silverlake Lounge, in Sunset Junction, where the night apparently
began to sour, and the gas station near the intersection of Sunset
Boulevard and Swarthmore Avenue are 21 miles apart. Neither Gutierrez
nor the uncle -- whom police have not identified -- seem to be able to
remember where the crime occurred.

LAPD Lt. Ray Lombard called the case more a "where- dunnit" than a
"whodunit."
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