Child Hit-and-Run
MURRIETA (CNS) – A felon who ran over and seriously injured a 6-year- old boy while fleeing the scene of an accident outside a Perris church pleaded guilty Tuesday to reckless driving resulting in great bodily injury.
Louie Ahmad Qutami, 30, of Menifee, admitted the felony count under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admission, prosecutors agreed to drop a hit-and-run charge against Qutami.
Superior Court Judge Jeff Zimel scheduled a sentencing hearing for Dec. 2 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta. A potential term of imprisonment was not disclosed.
The defendant is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center.
The hit-and-run occurred at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at a crosswalk fronting St. James Catholic Church in the 300 block of West Third Street, according to sheriff’s Sgt. Jeremy Bracey. He said the victim, whose identity was not released, was walking with his family when they started across Third Street at C Street, roughly the same time that Qutami, going southbound in a 2023 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, clipped a parked vehicle.
“As the truck began fleeing the collision scene, it struck the juvenile,” Bracey said, adding that the defendant sped away.
Paramedics reached the location minutes later and found the victim with major life-threatening injuries. He was taken to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley for treatment and has since recovered.
His family members weren’t hurt.
Deputy Freider Rodriguez said in a bail-setting declaration that over the ensuing days, he was able to confirm to whom the pickup belonged — Qutami – – and that the probationer was at the wheel at the time of the hit-and-run.
“Louie has a history of drug use, DUIs and hit-and-runs,” Rodriguez wrote. “He had not checked in with his probation officer since 2022, blatantly disregarding the terms of his probation.”
The deputy said he discovered Qutami had been in Mexico, undergoing drug rehabilitation, for two years, returning to the United States on Feb. 9, just five days prior to the hit-and-run.
When the lawman tracked down the defendant and his pickup on Hospitality Place in Murrieta, “there was a heavy odor of alcohol (permeating) the truck, days after the collision,” he said.
“There was also a heavy odor of alcohol coming from (Qutami’s) breath,” Rodriguez wrote.
He requested that Superior Court Judge Michael Rushton order the defendant held without bail because Qutami’s family has properties that might enable them to post a seven-figure bond, and “they will lie and cover for him, not holding him accountable for his actions,” the deputy said.
The judge granted the request.
Court records show Qutami’s prior convictions include reckless driving, hit-and-run resulting in property damage, burglary and auto theft.
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