Last year a Riverview man was involved in a deadly car crash and following the crash a Tampa DUI investigation was started. Now eight months later Cesar Cervantes has been arrested and charged with DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. The 24-year-old Riverview man was arrested Sunday evening.
The car crash took place December 26th at approximately 4:00 a.m. Cesar Cervantes’ 15-year-old brother was riding in the bed of his pick-up truck when Cesar lost control of his 2002 Dodge Ram. The pick-up slammed into a pole. There were six people in the truck, which spun across U.S. 41 in Ruskin throwing two teens from the vehicle. Everyone in the truck was injured and Nativada Cervantes lost his life in the DUI car crash.
Cesar Cervantes was taken to Tampa General Hospital the night of the crash where it is presumed a blood draw was taken to determine if the man was driving drunk the night of the crash. According to the Florida Highway Patrol his blood alcohol level that night was 0.161. In the state of Florida a driver is assumed to be impaired at 0.08.
Cesar Cervantes is being held on $72,500 bail in the Hillsborough County Jail. His official charges include two counts of reckless driving with serious bodily injury, two counts of driving under the influence with property damage and two counts of DUI with serious bodily injury on top of the DUI manslaughter charge.
The details in the case are conflicting. TBO.com reported the relationship between Cesar and Nativada Cervantes was unknown while TampaBay.com reported the two were brothers. TBO.com cited the FHP in their report saying the relationship between the two was undetermined. The two Internet reports also conflict on the age of the driver. One site lists the age of Cesar Cervantes as 24 and the other 23.
