SALISBURY, N.C. -- The murder trial of an illegal immigrant accused of driving drunk and causing a wreck that killed a pregnant woman in Landis is already well underway.

Opening statements began early Tuesday after all 12 jurors for the trial were chosen on Monday. The prosecution is currently presenting its case.

Rigo Verto Guillen-Martinez faces several charges stemming from the February 6 crash that killed Leeanna Newman. Authorities say he was trying to elude a Kannapolis police officer when he hit Newman’s car head-on at a high rate of speed.

Newman and her unborn child died a short time later. Her young daughter survived the accident.

The trial began with video of the crash from a camera mounted inside a police cruiser. Many jurors leaned forward to get a better look, and some held their hands over their mouths in disbelief.

Guillen-Martinez showed no emotions as he watched the video, said Eyewitness News reporter Tim Caputo.

Newman’s family and other members of the audience were shielded from seeing the footage. Regardless, the judge expected the young woman’s loved ones to have a trying day. He told the father of her unborn child just before the start of the trial that he has to control his emotions because the judge doesn’t want to be forced to declare a mistrial.

Witnesses Testify About Defendant’s Driving, Alleged Drinking

By the afternoon, the prosecution had already called eight witnesses to the stand; three of whom were driving and said they saw Guillen-Martinez and others who said they were involved in hit-and-run accidents with the defendant.

Karen Page said she saw Guillen-Martinez driving erratically minutes before the crash. Millison Douglas said the man even hit her car.

“He just sat there, looked right at me, backed up and then drove off,” she testified.

The officer who tried to catch up with the defendant even testified that Guillen-Martinez smiled at him on two different occasions. Officer David Horne said he was standing in the street when he first saw the man, and he said Guillen-Martinez stopped his Jeep only a few feet away from him.

“I reached for the door handle, he just looked at me and smiled and drove off,” he said

Moments later, rescue crews were rushing to the victims of a violent crash, which prosecutors say was caused by a man with three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood stream.

A paramedic who spoke with Guillen-Martinez just after the crash may have provided the day’s most damaging testimony. He testified that he asked the man, in Spanish, how man beers he’d drank. He said Guillen-Martinez answered in Spanish that he had 20. When the paramedic said, “20 beers?”, he said the defendant answered in English, “yes.”

“That’s when he started saying again,’ I love America; you guys are nice guys; I love you,’” the paramedic said.

The defense will present its case on Wednesday. Guillen-Martinez’s attorney has said he won’t dispute that his client was behind the wheel and speeding, but he will fight the murder charge.