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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Illegal immigrant faces prison (only six years for murder) The suspended driver and illegal immigrant blew a red light and slammed a pickup into a minivan near 180th Street and West Center Road in May — killing 4-year-old van passenger Josie Bluhm. For those actions, Eleazar Rangel-Ochoa pleaded no contest Tuesday to driving under suspension, a felony, and misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide. And Rangel-Ochoa remains distraught, his attorney said. He isn't the only one. Josie's loved ones, including parents Kyle and Jayme Bluhm, have had to carry on without their 4-year-old middle child — a blonde-haired, blue-eyed bundle of fun. Jayme Bluhm was driving the couple's three children, then ages 5, 4 and 1, to day care on May 12, when the crash happened, prosecutors said. “All of these cases are horrible,” said prosecutor Matt Kuhse, who handles Douglas County's motor-vehicle homicide cases. “But it's particularly troubling when it's a child who is so, so young — especially when her life ended in such a violent way.” Rangel-Ochoa's case has been marked with questions about why he was driving and why he was still in the country after three drunken-driving convictions. Rangel-Ochoa's attorney, Joe Lopez-Wilson, said Rangel-Ochoa, 27, is torn up over his actions — and has little explanation for why he was driving. Lopez-Wilson said Rangel-Ochoa got behind the wheel of the pickup because the truck's owner wasn't going to work that day. Rangel-Ochoa and his two passengers were headed to work at a construction site. The attorney said he was uncertain whether Rangel-Ochoa's two passengers could have driven, or whether they had driver's licenses. Rangel-Ochoa didn't. His driver's license had been suspended for 15 years after his third-drunken driving conviction in 2003. It also was unclear why Rangel-Ochoa hadn't been deported after his drunken-driving convictions — all of which preceded 2003. Lopez-Wilson, who handles immigration cases, said that, back then, authorities were more concerned with illegal immigrants who committed violent offenses. Shortly after the crash, Lopez-Wilson said, his client wanted to “man up” by pleading to the charges against him. Lopez-Wilson said he wouldn't let Rangel-Ochoa do so until the attorney had a chance to review the charges and all of the evidence. (Rangel-Ochoa wasn't drunk that morning — hence the misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide charge.) Rangel-Ochoa faces up to six years in prison — five years for driving under suspension, one year for motor vehicle homicide — when he is sentenced in December. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have a deportation hold on him now — and Rangel-Ochoa is expected to be deported after he serves his sentence. “From Day One, he was distraught,” Lopez-Wilson said. “Every time I talk to him, he's downtrodden. “He knows whatever happens to him in court is temporary. He's going to have to deal with the consequences of what he did for the rest of his life.”
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