A 26-year-old man who has spent the last two years in jail charged with second-degree murder was covering up for his girlfriend, attorneys announced Thursday.
Joseph Harold Botwright was arrested in June 2007 shortly after Manuel Paulino Casillas, 82, was struck and killed by a van in the 4100 block of West Tetakusim Road, near West Los Reales Road and South Camino De Oeste.
Witnesses told deputies the van’s driver was driving erratically when he struck Casillas and continued on without stopping.
Deputies found the van a short time later and Botwright was behind the wheel when they pulled him over after a short chase.
Two girls who were with Botwright said he was driving the van at the time of the crash and Botwright neither admitted, nor denied the allegation. A third passenger, Raymond Martinez, fled the scene.
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On Thursday, prosecutor Bruce Chalk and defense attorney Dean Brault told Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Fell one of the girls was driving the van when it struck Casillas and Botwright swapped seats with her afterward.
Botwright pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution and misdemeanor driving under the influence Thursday and was immediately sentenced to three years intensive probation and 10 days time served.
The 26 months Botwright has served in jail will be applied toward the 28 months he received in a federal drug case in July, Brault said. Botwright was awaiting trial at the time of the crash and later pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Once released from federal custody, Botwright will begin serving his state sentence, along with a federal probation sentence.
Following Thursday’s hearing, Brault, an assistant Pima County public defender, said the girl’s culpability came to light in November 2008 — 17 months after Botwright’s arrest.
Brault obtained a letter written to Botwright from the girl’s mother urging Botwright to tell the truth. Around the same time, he received another letter from a jail inmate informing him Botwright told him the girl was the driver, Brault said.
The girl’s mother was questioned about the letter and she eventually identified her daughter as the driver during a sworn deposition, Brault said.
After the deposition, Martinez’s statement to police was discovered and he, too, identified the girl as the driver, Brault said.
Lastly, the girl’s DNA was found on the steering wheel.
Brault didn’t receive either letter until after his client, who has a low IQ, had already been declared incompetent to stand trial and spent several months in a restoration-to-competency program.
No charges have been filed against either girl, but an investigation is ongoing, Chalk said.
Martinez, 18, died in January after being shot by a Southside convenience store clerk while committing a robbery.
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