A 46-year-old Harlingen woman has been arrested by Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies on a warrant seeking to revoke her probation in a criminal negligence homicide case in Cameron County.
Hidalgo County jail records indicate that Melissa Gutierrez was arrested and booked in jail on Sunday.
A Cameron County grand jury on Aug. 2, 2017 indicted Gutierrez on one count of criminal negligence homicide and one count of accident involving injury or death.
According to the indictment, Gutierrez on April 11, 2017 caused the death of Jose Luis Cruz, by “using cellular telephone while driving and or/driving while distracted and/or not maintaining a single lane on the roadway.”
The indictment states that Gutierrez left the scene of the accident without providing her name or address and “without rendering reasonable assistance to Jose Luis Cruz when it was then apparent that Jose Luis Cruz was in need of medical treatment.”
Gutierrez on Jan. 22, 2018 pleaded guilty to the criminal negligent homicide charge and was sentenced to two years in a state jail facility, which was to be followed by five years of probation and was to be supervised by the Adult Community Supervision Office, state court documents reflect. As part of her probation, Gutierrez was not to violate any state or federal laws, avoid persons or places of disreputable character, work faithfully at suitable employment, pay court cost within 60 days, pay additional fees and restitution in the amount of $4,295.
Court documents state Gutierrez violated her probation by being arrested on a driving while intoxicated charge on Sept. 25, 2021 by the La Feria Police Department and also failed to pay the fees she was issued to pay at her guilty plea.
Gutierrez’s motion to revoke hearing is scheduled for Dec. 9, before 197 th state District Court Judge Adolfo E. Cordova Jr. The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office is requesting that Gutierrez be confined to a state jail facility for two years.
