Victor Gutierrez
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The 26-year-old man arrested here in Reno County after a high-speed chase because of his suspected involvement with a murder in Ford County avoided a jury trial Wednesday morning and entered a plea in the case instead.
Victor Gutierrez entered pleas to criminal possession of a firearm and felony flee and elude, while the state dismissed a charge of possession of cocaine.
He’s now guilty of leading law enforcement here in a high-speed chase with speeds as high as 150 miles per hour. The chase reportedly ended at U.S. 50 and Mayfield Road east of Hutchinson, where he pulled over and was taken into custody without incident.
In addition to the murder charge in Ford County, Guttierrez is also charged with aggravated endangerment of a child, criminal possession of a firearm by a felon and defacing identification marks of a firearm. The charges in Ford County come after police responded to a home back on Sept. 23, 2014 and found 30-year-old Natasha Pruitt dead of a gun shot wound.
With the plea, Judge Trish Rose set sentencing for March 13.