UPDATE, 2:35 p.m.: After a trial that lasted less than three hours, followed by about 15 minutes to ponder a verdict, a Prince William County Circuit Court judge found Martinelly Montano guilty of felony murder. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 3, and he faces up to 70 years in prison.
A 24-year-old illegal immigrant has pleaded guilty in a drunk-driving crash that killed a nun and injured two others in Bristow.
Carlos A. Martinelly Montano pleaded guilty Monday in Prince William County Circuit Court to two counts of maiming resulting from driving while intoxicated, driving on a revoked license, involuntary manslaughter and driving while intoxicated.
Martinelly Montano was charged in the Aug. 1, 2010, crash that left Sister Denise Mosier, 66, dead. Two other Benedictine nuns were seriously injured in the head-on crash, which sparked outcry over the Department of Homeland Security’s deportation proceedings.
Martinelly Montano had two previous drunk driving convictions and was in the process of being deported. He was released pending a long-delayed deportation hearing.
His attorneys are contesting the most serious charge against him, felony murder, and a trial on that count is under way before Judge Lon Farris.
Defense attorney Dimitri Willis said Martinelly Montano displayed no malice — an element of the murder charge — and didn’t intend to hurt anyone.
But prosecutors said the dangerousness of drunk driving implies malice, and led directly to Mosier’s death.
Martinelly Montano’s felony offense of drunk driving was “without a doubt, the cause of the death,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert said.
