Jury deliberates in 2021 hit-and-run death of 7-year-old boy

Aug. 30—Jurors began deliberations Wednesday to settle the question of whether Sergio Almanza was intoxicated at the time he ran a red light and fatally struck a 7-year-old boy leaving the River of Lights with his family in 2021.

Almanza, 29, is charged with vehicular homicide while driving under the influence in the Dec. 12, 2021, death of Pronoy Bhattacharya, while the boy and his family were leaving the holiday display at the ABQ BioPark.

A second-grader at Georgia O'Keefe Elementary School, Pronoy was walking hand-in-hand with his father in the crosswalk at Tingley and Central at the time he was struck by an off-road vehicle speeding west on Central Avenue.

In closing arguments Wednesday, Almanza's attorney, Ahmad Assed, acknowledged that his client drove the 2018 Can-Am off-road vehicle that sped through a red light, killing the boy and injuring his father.

But Assed told jurors that prosecutors had offered no evidence that Almanza consumed alcohol in the hours before the fatal crash.

"The DWI is not there," Assed said in closing arguments. "The evidence, when you just touch it, falls apart."

Assed urged jurors to convict Almanza of vehicular homicide while driving recklessly, a third-degree felony with a maximum six-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors with the New Mexico Attorney General's Office asked jurors to convicted Almanza of vehicular homicide while driving under the influence — a second-degree felony with a maximum 15-year sentence.

Almanza is also charged with great bodily harm by vehicle for striking and injuring the boy's father, Aditya Bhattacharya. In addition, he is charged with knowingly leaving the scene of an accident, illegally driving an off-road vehicle on a paved street, and tampering with evidence.

He faces a total of 27 years in prison if convicted on all counts. The 2nd Judicial District Court jury will continue deliberations Thursday. District Judge Brett Loveless is presiding.

Prosecutors argue that Almanza had been drinking for hours the day of Pronoy's death, first while off-roading on the West Mesa, and later at El Sinaloense Mariscos and Grill in the 5000 block of Central near San Mateo.

The "totality" of Almanza's actions before, during and after the fatal crash show that he was intoxicated, prosecutors said in closing arguments.

Almanza "blew through that light" traveling at least 50 mph at the moment he struck Pranoy, Assistant Attorney General Greer Staley said during closing arguments. The light had been red for at least nine seconds at the moment of impact, she said.

Almanza applied his brakes only 0.2 seconds before impact, Staley said. He then sped away, hid his Can-Am at a friend's house, then fled Albuquerque for more than a month, she said.

"This defendant left a little boy to die in the street in front of his mother," Staley told jurors. "He needed to get out of there."

Police said Almanza fled to Mexico for more than a month after the crash. He was arrested in January 2022.

Assistant Attorney General John Duran told jurors that, under the law, Almanza needed to be intoxicated only "to the slightest degree" to be found guilty of DWI.

Duran showed jurors copies of two restaurant receipts showing that Almanza and others purchased about $175 worth of beer and "mango shots" that evening shortly before Pronoy's death.

"We aren't saying he was drunk," Duran said in closing arguments. "We're saying he was impaired to the slightest degree."