Covington man pleads guilty to homicide

A 23-year-old Covington driver pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing his passenger when he fell asleep at the wheel and flipped his car near Bush on April 6, 2008.

Javier Gachuzo faces between five and 30 years with a minimum of three years spent in prison without the possibility of parole or probation. State judge William “Rusty” Knight set sentencing for March 16.

The 5:27 p.m. wreck left Javier Velazquez Gachuzo, 19, dead at the scene at Louisiana Highway 40 east of Barker’s Corner. Because both the victim and driver had the same name authorities believed they were related.

Gachuzo, whose blood alcohol level at the time registered .11, just slightly higher than the legal limit of .08, caused the wreck when he failed to negotiate a left turn and veered into a ditch. He rumbled along the ditch for about 50 feet before the 1991 Dodge Avenger slammed into a sloped driveway, launched the car more than 15 feet in the air and clipped two tree limbs along the way. The car then landed on its front end and flipped until it came to a rest upside down facing west.

The victim, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected, State Police said at the time of the accident. The car rolled on top of him.

At the scene of the accident, Gachuzo was so close to home he walked back and fell asleep, District Attorney Walter Reed’s spokesman Rick Wood said.

Two other passengers, Ricardo Rodriquez, then 25, and Salome Rodriquez, then 65, both of Bush, were transferred to St. Tammany Parish Hospital for treatment of moderate injuries.