SALISBURY, N.C. -- A Rowan County grand jury has indicted an illegal immigrant accused of driving drunk and causing a crash that killed a woman and her unborn child in Landis.

Jury members believe prosecutors have enough evidence to take 33-year-old Rigo Berto Guillen Martinez, also known as Carlos Alfonso Guillen Martinez and by four other aliases named in the indictment, to trial on second-degree murder and driving while impaired charges. The indictment also charges Martinez with hit and run, driving without a license and aggravated factors, including the death of the unborn child.

The aggravated factors, which mean elements increased the seriousness of the other crimes, also include the fact that Martinez, who has already been deported twice, was on probation for a DWI conviction at the time of the crash.

Police say Martinez was trying to elude a Kannapolis police officer when he crashed head-on into 20-year-old Leeanna Newman’s car on South Main Street on Feb. 6. He was going around 100 miles per hour, investigators said.

Kannapolis police said an officer was trying to catch up to Martinez after callers reported he had been involved in several hit-and-runs in the Kannapolis area. When the officer reached him, the crash had already happened.

Kannapolis authorities have not yet released a report on their investigation into what happened.

The Landis police officer in charge of investigating the crash said he doesn’t expect the case to go to court until late 2008 or early 2009 because of a backlog of 34 murder cases pending at the courthouse in Salisbury.

Martinez is currently being held in the medical facility at the Central Prison in Raleigh because of the injuries he sustained in the crash.

Family Seeks Answers

Newman’s aunt said with all the layers to the incident complicating matters, they just want answers about the young mother’s death.

Jeanette Bentley wonders why Kannapolis police haven’t released any information about the moments before the crash.

“We can understand if he was a rapist, a murderer, an escapee – but to chase someone for driving reckless, we don’t understand,” she said. “We just want to know what was in the officer’s mind.”

And although the family is comforted that Martinez will face murder charges, they are not satisfied because he was not charged in the unborn child’s death. Bentley says the grand jury should have had the option of a second indictment.

“It’s just hard to believe that someone would think only one person died that day. It was two people who died,” she said.

Bentley said no matter how long it takes for the case to go to trial, the pain of the loss will not be lessened.

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes for the trial, there’s never going to be closure,” she said.

The district attorney said he couldn’t charge Martinez in the unborn child’s death according to the law. Newman’s family plans to fight for legislation to recognize the rights of unborn babies. Such legislation has already been proposed by the General Assembly.