Mom skips young son’s funeral and flees to Mexico as she faces charges, Okla. cops say
An Oklahoma mom and her 5-year-old son were riding a Lime electric scooter when she “recklessly rode the scooter into oncoming traffic,” according to court documents obtained by KFOR.
Then, “in an attempt to veer out of the path of a vehicle,” Evelyn Ortiz-Luevano’s son fell onto the road and was hit by that vehicle in what became a fatal hit-and-run crash, the affidavit says, according to the Oklahoma TV station.
Her son, Caiden Reyes-Ortiz, died of his injuries from the April 23 crash in Tulsa, KFOR reported.
His mother Ortiz-Luevano, 23, was charged with child neglect and negligent homicide in connection to Caiden’s death, the Tulsa World reported.
Lime’s scooter rules say only one person may ride a scooter at a time — and that riders must be 18 or older, according to CNN.
Rather than an immediate arrest, Tulsa police said they were giving the mom time to attend her 5-year-old’s funeral, KTUL reported.
“We were looking to have her turn herself in or go and find her but we were going to hopefully let her attend her child’s funeral first and then take care of business later, and she never attended her child’s funeral,” Shane Tuell with the Tulsa Police Department said, according to KTUL.
Police say she used that time to flee to Mexico instead, the station reported.
The department believes she immediately fled after learning that she was facing criminal charges, CNN reported.
“That doesn’t mean she is out of our reach forever,” Tuell said, according to KTUL. “Because the biggest misconception is if you run away and run far enough away, the charge goes away. This is a charge that is gonna stay here forever.”
Ortiz-Luevano also now faces an additional charge connected to running away, KTUL reported.
The driver of the car, Renier Davison, later turned himself in and admitted to the hit-and-run crash, police said, according to KFOR. “He has been charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, causing an accident without a valid driver’s license and driving with a suspended license,” the station reported.
“We see this as a tragedy that has made a victim of three people,” Davison’s lawyer said in a statement, according to CNN. “A young mother has lost a child, a child has died and a man has to live with the behavior of a mother that put her child in great danger. Our prayers are that a healing is immediate for all involved.”
A GoFundMe page raised $4,913 for Caiden, and it is no longer accepting donations. Another page for Caiden, which has also been closed, raised $430 for his memorial fund.
This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 10:09 AM.