GREGORY DUVALL & VICKIE D. GUFFEY

Illegal immigrant charged in deaths of New Castle motorists
STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
NEW CASTLE

Originally published December 23, 2006

An illegal immigrant faces criminal charges in the deaths of two New Castle residents killed when their car rear-ended a grain wagon without working tail lights that had stopped on Ind. 38 west of the Henry-Wayne county line.
Ernesto M. Reyes, 20, 2770 N. Henry County Road 900-E, was charged Friday with two counts of reckless homicide, a class C felony carrying a standard four-year prison term.
An initial hearing in Henry Circuit Court is set for 3 p.m. Wednesday. Reyes was being held late Friday in the Henry County jail under a $500,000 bond.
Indiana State Police Trooper Eric Thumb said Reyes was driving a tractor that was hauling the grain wagon and had stopped on the two-lane state highway, waiting to turn into a private road, when a car crashed into the rear of the wagon.
Gregory Duvall, 39, and his mother-in-law, Vickie D. Guffey, 60, both of 126 N. 10th St., were pronounced dead at the scene, between Henry County roads 850-E and 950-E.
Henry County Prosecutor Kit Crane said Duvall didn't have time to react when he came upon the tractor and wagon in the dark about an hour after sunset Wednesday because the trailer lacked the required operational tail lights.
Crane said Reyes was a Mexican national who entered the U.S. illegally. Reyes, who was not hurt in the crash, was hauling the wagon loaded with about 13,000 pounds of grain for a local farmer.