An unlicensed Guatemalan was tracked down after a hit-and-run crash sent a woman to a local hospital.
The woman had been driving a white Volkswagen at about 9 p.m. Saturday on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 when a Chevy pickup truck towing a trailer pulled out in front of her, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. The trailer hit the woman’s vehicle. The woman, who was “visibly distraught” when emergency personnel arrived on the scene, suffered a compound fracture of her arm. She was transported by ambulance to UF Health-The Villages Hospital.
Witnesses told police that the truck, which was towing a trailer full of construction materials, fled “at an extremely high rate of speed.” The trailer had been damaged in the crash and left “grooves in the road.” Officers followed the groove marks to a home in the 1100 block of West End Street. A man said his friend, 30-year-old Jose Efrain Garcia-Perez, “dropped off” the trailer, which had “severe damage” to the side, along with white paint that appeared to have come from the collision with the woman’s Volkswagen.
Officers went to Garcia-Perez’s home at 37631 Tavaren Lane in Lady Lake. They found the pickup truck which had been towing the trailer.
A woman at the home initially claimed the truck had been left at the home and the owner ran away. A juvenile in the home began to provide police with information about Garcia-Perez. The woman told the child to, “Shut up.” The woman was warned that she would be charged with obstruction if she gave police misleading information. She began to cooperate and eventually revealed to police that Garcia-Perez would be returning home.
Garcia-Perez was found walking up the road. It appeared he had been drinking. Police learned that Garcia-Perez has never been issued a driver’s license in the United States. He was identified by his identification card from Guatemala.
He was arrested on charges of hit and run and driving without a license. He was ticketed on a charge of failure to yield at an intersection. He was booked at the Lake County Jail on $30,000 bond.