HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – The woman charged in the death of a respected and beloved sergeant with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office was “selfish” and “too intoxicated to care” when her actions caused the preventable tragedy, according to Harris County Vehicular Crimes Division Chief Sean Teare.
Lavillia Spry, 40, allegedly fled the scene after fatally striking Sergeant Ramon Gutierrez, 45, while the 20-veteran law enforcement officer was conducting traffic control in northeast Harris County early Monday.
Spry has been charged with intoxication manslaughter of a peace officer, a first-degree felony; failure to stop and render aid resulting in death, a second-degree felony, and evading a motorcycle vehicle, which is a third-degree felony.
“He’s dead because she acted in an incredibly selfish manner to even turn the key and start the car, but then, just continue to act in a selfish manner by deciding she wasn’t going to go to the next exit, she was going to drive around the police,” Teare said.
According to Teare, Gutierrez was monitoring a convoy of oversized machinery on East Sam Houston Parkway N. at Tidwell around 12:30 a.m. He had on a full set of lights, a reflective jacket and was waving a flashlight at Spry, who still went around his motorcycle.
“At the very last second, he tried to get out of the way. He couldn’t do it and she struck him. She drug him for quite a while and then just continued on as of nothing happened,” Teare described. “We had another one of the deputies who was escorting that rig who subsequently chased her for over a mile and was finally able to stop her, bring her back to the scene.”
Teare said Spry was showing obvious signs of intoxication.
“She performed really badly on the field sobriety test. We got a search warrant. We took her blood,” Teare said.
Her actions, he described, as reckless.
“There had been numerous cars that heeded his warning and not come down that exit, but sadly, Ms. Spry was too intoxicated to pay attention or quite frankly to care, and Sgt. Gutierrez is dead because of it,” Teare said.
Teare said he’s known Sgt. Gutierrez for 14 years and Gutierrez was actually the primary deputy on his very first intoxication manslaughter case back in 2008 or 2009. Being one of their own makes the investigation that much harder.
“The Vehicular Crimes Division of the Sheriff’s Department had to investigate this crash knowing that Ramon was either on death’s door or already deceased. It was emotional for me. It was incredibly emotional for every single one of them that were working there,” he shared.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez echoed Teare’s sentiments.
“Our hearts are broken,” Gonzalez said. “There just isn’t really a word, any words when we lose a hero, a law enforcement officer in our community. It’s not only a loss to our agency, but also a loss to the community at large.”
Gonzalez said the department is embracing Gutierrez’s family and is sending love, not only to them, but to other agencies across the country who’ve also recently lost officers.
“It’s been tough for law enforcement to start the year. We also had the untimely death of Deputy Crowder last week. I know NYPD also suffered a loss. A young police officer was gunned down responding to a domestic disturbance call and the second is battling for his life,” Gonzalez said.
Gutierrez is survived by his wife, who was his high school sweetheart, two sons, and a daughter who was to be married in about two months.
“It really hits home when we step away from the job sometimes and just see the impacts that they had in the community and in service, with their families,” Gonzalez said. “It just really leaves a large gap in our hearts. And that’s why we say it’s a commitment we make that will never be forgotten.”
As for Spry, Gonzalez said they are praying she’ll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Teare made it clear, the DA’s Office will do everything it can to make sure justice will be served.
“Based on her statements, there is no one else that we can hold accountable meaning she’s claiming that she drank at her home, but drunks are notoriously bad historians,” he said. “We are going to find out. We’ve got a number of ways that we are going to go back in the next day, two days, I don’t imagine that it is going to take a week to either confirm or deny her story. However long it takes. If there is anyone else in the chain that we can hold accountable for this senseless death, we are absolutely going to do it.”
Spry was arraigned Monday afternoon where it was discovered she has a 4-week-old child and a 15-year-old. A judge set her bond at $150,000 for the intoxication manslaughter charge, $75,000 for failing to stop and render aid, and $50,000 for the evading charge.
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