Gabriel Delrisco, who will be sentenced April 28, faces up to 45 years in prison for the triple fatal drunk driving crash.
Moments after accepting responsibility for the drunk-driving crash that killed three children in Homestead, Gabriel Delrisco wiped away tears and turned to the courtroom.
“I’m sorry,” Delrisco said, meekly. “So sorry.”
The surviving Serrano family just husband and wife, Hector and Mirian, dressed in black watched quietly, their faces empty of emotion. The apology meant nothing.
“Now he wants to say he’s sorry,” Hector Serrano said quietly after the Wednesday’s court hearing. “But it’s too late. He came and destroyed our entire family.”
He added: “He has to pay for what he did. He killed my family. We have nothing now.”
Delrisco, 42, pleaded guilty Wednesday, two years after he plowed his truck into the back of Hector Serrano’s minivan on South Dixie Highway near Homestead, killing his three young children.
The Serranos will get their chance to address him directly on April 28, when Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez issues a prison sentence. He faces up to 45 years.
Wednesday’s plea hearing was a muted affair, marked only by Delrisco’s initial indecision in pleading guilty. He had no plea agreement. Instead, he is hoping Rodriguez shows mercy at the April sentencing.
Hector Serrano survived the horrific crash that killed his three children, Hector, 10; Esmeralda, 7, and Amber, 4.
Delrisco, who had spent the night drinking, crashed into the back of a Ford minivan on Jan. 25, 2009 in South Miami-Dade. He had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, authorities said.
He also was charged with battery on a firefighter for fighting with rescue workers who extricated him from his own mangled truck. On Wednesday, he did not enter a new plea to that case, which is still open and could result in an additional five years in prison.
Delrisco’s case drew intense public interest because of his driving record: the former dump truck driver had been cited for traffic violations 29 times in eight years, including one previous drunk driving arrest. At the time of the Serrano accident, Delrisco still had a valid license.
His case took a twist when it was revealed that his defense attorney, Michael Catalano, had secretly worn a recording device in an attempt to help Miami-Dade prosecutors implicate the Serrano’s civil lawyer, Ariel Furst, in wrongdoing.
Catalano alleged that Furst wanted Delrisco to lie about where he drank that night, clearing the way for a potentially lucrative lawsuit against a Homestead strip mall.
Prosecutors eventually determined that there was not enough evidence for a criminal case against Furst. The feud between him and Catalano devolved into an ugly public spat and dueling complaints to the Florida Bar.
For defense attorneys in the high-profile case, Delrisco’s case was indefensible. There was no question he was driving the truck. And there were no flaws in the blood tests that showed he had been drinking.
“We really feel there was no viable defense to this case,” Catalano told the judge Wednesday.
Miami-Dade prosecutors David I. Gilbert and Deisy Hernandez had not made any plea deals offers. The Serrano family wanted nothing less than the maximum.
Catalano and co-counsel Robert Aaron, an assistant public defender, visited Delrisco in jail last week to explain the legal dead-end. By pleading “straight up” to the court and sparing the Serranos the ordeal of going through trial he could buy some goodwill from the judge and maybe get out of prison to see his grandchildren grow up.
And Delrisco could also hope for leniency for his remorse, and cooperation in the Furst probe. He spent last weekend mulling the case, and Monday told his attorneys he would plead guilty.
But on Tuesday, Delrisco wavered. Watching from the audience: the Serranos, along with representatives from Mothers against Drunk Driving and FHP Cpl. Guillermo Ochoa, the lead investigator on the case. Mirian Serrano wore a pin adorned with her children’s photos.
Delrisco, dressed in the red jail jump suit for high-profile inmates, his eyes cast downward, wanted to know if he could speak withc the family. He was told he could not. And Delrisco wanted to know whether Rodriguez could tell him her sentence before the plea.
The judge could not because she needed to hear from the surviving victims, as well as Delrisco’s own family.
“I would like ask you for an extension of 30 more days. I’m not able to make this decision right now,” Delrisco stammered.
“Why are we here if he’s not prepared to take a plea?” Rodriguez asked the lawyers. “Why on Earth did we have all these people show up here today. To waste time?”
Delrisco relented seconds later, pleading guilty to three counts of DUI manslaughter.
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