ST. GEORGE — A 23-year-old driver was booked into jail on felony automobile homicide-DUI following a collision on Sunset Boulevard early Wednesday morning that left an older man dead after he was struck by a car while crossing the street just before sunrise.
The arrest stems from an incident reported at 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday when officers were dispatched to the 1300 block of Sunset Boulevard in St. George after a pedestrian was reportedly hit by a black car.
While en route, officers were advised that the pedestrian, an older man, was unresponsive and CPR had been initiated.
According to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest, officers arrived to find a black Honda partially blocking one of the eastbound traffic lanes on Sunset and an older man lying in the center turn lane. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Meanwhile, additional patrol officers responded and found the driver, a St. George man identified by his out-of-state identification card as 23-year-old Melvin Gomez-Garcia, who had remained at the scene until emergency personnel arrived. A records check later revealed Garcia had no valid driver’s license, as evidenced by a citation for the same offense issued to Garcia in 2020.
Through the course of the investigation, authorities say they determined the Honda was heading east on Sunset Boulevard in the lane closest to the median, while the pedestrian was heading north as he crossed Sunset Boulevard near 1300 West in an unmarked crosswalk.
As the pedestrian continued crossing the five lanes of Sunset, he was struck by the Honda on the front driver’s side of the vehicle.
When authorities asked Garcia if he had used any drugs or alcohol, the report states that Garcia said he had smoked marijuana the night before, and a drug recognition expert was called to the scene. The recognition expert noted that Garcia appeared “very calm” even though he was aware the pedestrian had been pronounced dead at the scene.
Additionally, police say Garcia’s eyes appeared to be bloodshot and watering with constricted pupils, and he also showed additional signs of possible impairment during the field sobriety test, including body and eyelid tremors and a lack of convergence that was present in both eyes, which is the inability to cross one’s eyes.
Following the series of tests the drug expert determined that Garcia showed signs of impairment that prevented him from operating a vehicle safely. The driver was arrested for suspected DUI and transported to the Police Department where he consented to a blood draw and urine sample, the results of which are still pending.
The officer concluded it was cannabis that caused the impairment, the report states, and when asked Garcia said he purchased the marijuana from one of the dispensaries in Nevada, which the drug recognition expert stated were businesses known for selling “high concentrate cannabis which causes more severe impairment and the effects last longer.”
Garcia was taken to St. George Regional Medical Center. After being medically cleared, he was then transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing third-degree felony automobile homicide negligence-DUI of alcohol and/or drugs.
A check of court records in Utah revealed that prior to the collision on Wednesday, the only other entry on Garcia’s record was a traffic-related citation issued to him in 2020.
The name of the pedestrian has yet to be released pending family notifications, according to a statement released by the St. George Police Department.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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