LOS ANGELES — Challenging the claims of L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva that a crash last week that injured a group of recruits on a training run in South Whittier was intentional, the attorney for the 22-year-old driver called it “a tragic accident” that occurred when the man fell asleep at the wheel while on his way to work.
The driver, Nicholas Joseph Gutierrez of Diamond Bar, was traveling in a Honda CR-V on Wednesday morning to his job as an electrical engineer for a solar panel company, his attorney, Alexandra Kazarian, said Monday. Gutierrez, who wakes for work at 5 a.m., had not been up late the night before, she said.
“He’s a good kid that fell asleep on his way to work early in the morning,” Kazarian said.
