BOSTON, May 31, 2018—A drunk driver was sentenced to state prison today following his conviction yesterday for killing 25-year-old Marco Salguero-Cruz in Chelsea two years ago, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
A Suffolk Superior Court jury yesterday found JOSE DANIEL AREVALO, 35, guilty of motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision causing death in connection with the 2016 collision that claimed Salguero-Cruz’ life on Washington Street.
Assistant District Attorney Michael V. Glennon recommended concurrent terms of five to seven years in state prison. Judge Linda Giles imposed a sentence of three and a half to four years on the motor vehicle homicide conviction and a sentence of two and a half years in a house of correction for leaving the scene, with one year deemed served while awaiting trial and the balance suspended for a four-year probationary term. During that period, she ordered, Arevalo must remain alcohol free and take part in an alcohol abuse program.
Marco Salguero-Cruz, 25, was struck and killed by a drunk driver in 2016.
“The pain is horrible and you are left with an emptiness,” she wrote. “I no longer get the ‘Hey cousin, what’s up’ texts or the ‘What did your mom cook’ texts. He is gone, leaving a daughter who, to this day, asks for her father. She will never know the sound of his voice. She will never get to hug him or experience a father-daughter moment … We just ask each other, ‘Why didn’t he stop? Why did he just leave him there?’”
During about a week of trial, Glennon introduced evidence and testimony proving that Arevalo spent the night of June 4, 2016, drinking at the Plaza Mexico Restaurant & Bar on Washington Avenue. The evidence showed that after consuming four beers and six shots in a period of about two and a half hours, he entered his Toyota Camry and drove away from the bar, striking Salguero-Cruz at about 10:00 pm.
After months of work recovering deleted video files from the restaurant’s camera system, investigators contacted an employee who could be seen in the footage taking a “selfie” photograph with her phone – and later testified at trial about doing so. Using the metadata from that photo, they were able to establish the time period during which Arevalo was drinking. Using footage from other cameras along the route from the restaurant to the crash site, investigators were able to assemble a series of clips documenting his travel and, ultimately, his culpability.
The staff of the DA’s Forensic Audio Video Investigation Analysis Unit and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Digital Forensics Lab were instrumental in gathering that evidence and assembling it for use at trial, Conley said.
Conley’s office, Chelsea Police, and State Police released images depicting the suspect vehicle and the then-unknown driver to the media and the public, and a person familiar with Arevalo contacted investigators after recognizing him. Investigators were also able to independently identify Arevalo through witness statements, social media, and Registry of Motor Vehicles records.
The evidence showed that Arevalo fled to El Salvador two days after the crash but later returned to the United States. He was taken into custody in Texas on Dec. 1, 2016, by Texas Rangers acting on a Massachusetts warrant obtained by Chelsea and State police.
“Two years ago, the defendant made a choice that cost Marco Salguero-Cruz his life,” Conley said after the verdict. “Since that time, prosecutors and police detectives worked together on his case – first to identify the suspect, then to apprehend him, and finally to hold him accountable. He fled the scene. He fled the country. But he could not flee from justice in a Suffolk County courtroom.”
Erin O’Connor was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Arevalo was represented by attorney Kelly Cusack.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
