Locust Valley man faces charges in 2019 crash that killed retired NYPD cop

A Locust Valley man faces aggravated vehicular homicide charges after prosecutors say he crashed into an ambulette in Glen Cove while driving drunk last year, leaving the patient inside — a retired NYPD detective — with deadly injuries.

Alvaro Gutierrez-Garcia, 28, pleaded not guilty on April 30 during a virtual court arraignment on an indictment that also charged him with offenses that include drunken-driving, manslaughter and aggravated vehicular assault.

Ambulette patient Denis Motherway, 85, of Bayville, was having trouble breathing before the crash at about 11:45 p.m. on Sept. 1 caused him to go into cardiac arrest, police previously alleged.

Authorities said Motherway later was pronounced dead at Glen Cove Hospital, where the private ambulette — its lights and siren on — was heading before Gutierrez-Garcia’s 1997 Cadillac sedan hit the vehicle as he sped east on Forest Avenue.

The ambulette had been going south on Walnut Road and the force of the impact caused it to overturn, according to police.

The Nassau district attorney's office said Tuesday that the crash happened about a decade after the victim’s son, Timothy Motherway, died in a March 2009 drunken-driving wreck.

Records show a Lynbrook woman later went to prison for manslaughter after the crash near the 35-year-old East Rockaway resident's apartment building.

Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement Tuesday that Denis Motherway had “bravely served the residents of New York City for 18 years” during his law enforcement career before his life was "tragically cut short" by an alleged drunken driver.

State Supreme Court Justice Robert McDonald kept Gutierrez-Garcia’s bail at $150,000 bond or cash during an arraignment in which the defendant took part via video conference from Nassau's jail.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Groder said Tuesday he only recently got Gutierrez-Garcia’s case and while he had reviewed some evidence, he hadn’t yet met his client in person.

The Mineola lawyer said he would be looking into Denis Motherway's medical condition before the crash as part of his investigation.

Police said following Gutierrez-Garcia’s arrest that his blood alcohol content was 0.18 percent after the crash, more than twice the legal limit.

An emergency medical technician who was inside the ambulette suffered serious physical injuries in the wreck, while the ambulette’s driver and a Cadillac passenger had minor injuries, according to prosecutors.

Gutierrez-Garcia faces up to 8 and 1/3 to 25 years in prison if found guilty of the top count.