GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — New evidence in court Friday revealed how fast investigators say a drunk driver was going when he killed a Gwinnett County mother half a mile from her own front door.
A Gwinnett County police investigator testified that Rodrigo Antonio Flores was driving close to 77 mph in a 40 mph zone on April 26 when his truck hit Alicia Thomas near Singleton Road and Thompson Parkway.
The truck’s own data and the crash reconstruction both showed he was speeding, the investigator said.
“If he wasn’t speeding, the driver of the (victim’s vehicle) would’ve made it through the left turn,” Officer J. Portugal-Mejia with Gwinnett County police testified.
He testified there were no skid marks at the scene. A drone mapped the crash down to the centimeter and found no sign Flores ever braked.
Officers reported an open beer can on the truck’s floorboard and the smell of alcohol on Flores at the scene.
His blood alcohol came back at 0.119, police said, about one and a half times the legal limit.
The intersection has turned deadly before. The investigator told the court his unit gets called there often for fatal crashes, including one last year that killed a mother and hurt her teenage daughter.
“We would get called out there plenty of times for pedestrian fatalities, motorcycles, and vehicles,” Portugal-Mejia said.
For the people who loved Thomas, the evidence is not the point. Brenda Conley met her selling real estate and called her a sister for more than a decade.
“She lost her life because somebody didn’t decide to do the right thing,” Conley said.
Thomas was 42. Her son is 13.
“We want whoever it is to be held responsible, but I would rather her be here,” Conley said.
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