8-YEAR-OLD VICTIM IMPROVES, CAN RESPOND TO FAMILY
By STEVEN GOODE and JEFFREY B. COHEN And STEPHANIE REITZ; Courant Staff Writers
Brenda Cruz spent most of Monday crying and clutching her 7-month-old son. She couldn't eat or sleep.
When Hartford detectives showed up at her door late Monday afternoon and asked if she knew why they were there, Cruz said yes, she did.
Cruz, 19, then admitted she was the driver of the car that struck and seriously injured 8-year-old Livia Freitas as the girl crossed Curtiss Street in Hartford Sunday afternoon, police said. Cruz's baby and two relatives were in the car with her, police said.
"She got in shock; she was scared" after the accident, her stepfather, Felix Crespo, said Tuesday at Superior Court in Hartford.
Crespo and Cruz's mother, Angela Crespo, told their daughter she should have stopped the car when she hit the girl, and Cruz agreed, Felix Crespo said.
"But there was a lot of pressure," he said, explaining that Cruz told them she would have stopped had she been alone in the car. "She was so scared."
Cruz was charged late Monday with felony evading responsibility, operating a motor vehicle without a license, traveling too fast for conditions and conspiracy to hinder prosecution, police said.
Cruz's cousin, Jeanet Rodriguez, 21, of Hartford, a passenger in the car, was charged Tuesday morning with conspiracy to commit felony evading responsibility and hindering prosecution, police said. The other passenger, Cruz's 18-year-old sister, Iris Mercado, has not been charged.
The arrests have divided the family, with relatives accusing one another of orchestrating a coverup that was to have included burning thecar, according to police reports.
As Cruz was being arraigned Tuesday, Livia remained in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, where her condition was upgraded from critical to serious. Her aunt, Andrea Dominguez, said Livia started breathing on her own Tuesday morning when a tube in her throat was removed.
Livia still cannot speak and remained heavily sedated because of her serious head injuries, but she recognizes her family and has been able to respond to them with gestures, Dominguez said.
During her arraignment Tuesday, Cruz, a thin woman with her dark hair in a bun, stood quietly with her head down.
She was held, with bail set at $200,000, and is scheduled to appear in court again on Aug. 30.
According to the police report, detectives went to Cruz's home at 19 Chadwick St. in Hartford after receiving an anonymous tip that she was the driver of the blue 1993 Geo Prizm that hit Livia, and that the car could be found in the Maple Avenue area.
Cruz took detectives to the car, at 768 Maple Ave., before going to police headquarters to give her statement.
The car, which belonged to an acquaintance of Cruz, had no license plate on it and had damage on its side when it was found, police said.
Cruz told police that she tried to stop when Livia ran out from behind an ice cream truck and into the street, but could not. "She said she didn't know what she hit until she looked back and saw the little girl lying in the road," Felix Crespo said. Rodriguez acknowledged that she told Cruz to drive off, according to a police report.
Rodriguez and Mercado verified Cruz's account of the accident, the report said.
Rodriguez was released on a $5,000 bond, police said.
More than a dozen judicial marshals provided security at Cruz's arraignment Tuesday. Her attorney, Gerald M. Klein, asked that the bail be reduced to $75,000 and that she be subject to electronic monitoring. Klein argued that Cruz had turned herself in and cooperated with police.
"This is obviously a tragic accident. She is not likely to be a serial offender," Klein said, adding that Cruz has no criminal record.
But Assistant State's Attorney John O'Reilly countered that Cruz cooperated only when police went to her home and confronted her.
"It wasn't as if she was waiting for them," O'Reilly said.
Judge Marcia J. Gleeson declined to reduce Cruz's bail Monday.
According to the police report, Cruz drove away from the scene of the accident and ditched the car on Maple Avenue.
From that point, the family members differ on their accounts of who suggested covering up the crime.
Cruz told police that once they got back to her home, Rodriguez, who was in the front passenger seat at the time of the accident, suggested burning the car and contacted a former boyfriend and asked him to do the job, according to the police report.
Cruz admitted to giving the keys to the man and telling him where to find the vehicle, the report said.
But Rodriguez said that Felix Crespo told Cruz to report the car stolen and suggested ways to get rid of it, including burning it, the police report said. Rodriguez said she called the former boyfriend to have the car burned -- at the request of Cruz, Felix and Angela Crespo and Mercado, the report said.
The former boyfriend came and got the keys Sunday but never contacted the family again, the report said.
Reached after court Tuesday, Felix Crespo said Rodriguez's story was not true, adding "I swear to God."
Dominguez said Livia's family is grateful for the outpouring of community support and for the detectives who worked on the hit-and-run case. They said they were relieved when police told them late Monday night about Cruz's arrest, but even more relieved when Livia's condition improved Tuesday.
"It was good to see [the person] who was responsible for the accident happening being found," Dominguez said. "The truth is that the most relief that we get is about Livia, and about her being off the tubes and breathing on her own."
A discussion of this story with Courant Staff Writer Stephanie Reitz is scheduled to be shown on New England Cable News each hour today between 9 a.m. and noon.