Milwaukee hit-and-run; brothers killed, man pleads guilty
Luis Perez Garcia
MILWAUKEE - The man accused in the hit-and-run deaths of two brothers on Milwaukee's south side pleaded guilty on Friday to two of four charges filed against him.
Prosecutors said 34-year-old Luis Perez Garcia struck two brothers, Ausberto and Michael Gutierrez Ponce, near 19th and Lincoln and kept going in May.
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Court records show Perez Garcia pleaded guilty to two counts of hit-and-run involving death, and two additional felonies were dismissed. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2025.
The crash happened around 2:45 a.m. on May 5. A witness told police that she gave her neighbor, Ausberto, a ride home that night and double-parked in the bike lane, so he could get out, according to a criminal complaint. She said Ausberto had already gotten out, and Michael met them out on the street to talk. That's when a speeding vehicle hit her SUV and the brothers, she said, and drove off.
Ausberto and Michael Gutierrez Ponce
Police found debris from the striking vehicle at the scene, which included pieces of plastic with "distinctive markings" on them, per the complaint. That debris was determined to be from a 2013-17 Chevrolet Traverse.
Surveillance video did not show the impact, but did show what appeared to be a 2013-2017 Chevrolet Traverse just west of the scene at the time. The complaint states no other vehicles drove past during that time frame leading up to and after the crash. The same SUV was later seen eastbound on Lincoln Avenue with damage to its passengers' side headlights – "consistent with having struck another object."
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Later that day, police found a Chevrolet Traverse with heavy damage to its front passenger side near 5th and Arthur – a little more than a mile from the crash scene. Neighbors told police who the SUV belonged to, the complaint states, and an officer went to knock on that door. Perez Garcia answered and was taken into custody.
The next day, detectives interviewed Perez-Garcia. Per the complaint, he admitted to causing the crash and leaving the scene. He said he had left a bar after he drank eight beers, but he "was not drunk" – rather, "buzzed." He also admitted he does not have a driver's license, and a review of Wisconsin Department of Transportation records found he had never been issued one.
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