Drunk driver sentenced to 20 years for death of Kalispell pedestrian

The New Jersey woman convicted of killing a pedestrian on U.S. 2 in Kalispell while driving under influence in 2022 received a decades-long prison sentence in Flathead County District Court on Thursday.

Judge Dan Wilson sent Desirea Garrera, 27, to the Montana Women’s Prison for 20 years for felony vehicular homicide under the influence and the state Department of Corrections for three years for criminal possession of dangerous drugs. The two sentences are to run concurrently to one another. 

Giving her credit for 62 days of time served, Wilson ordered Garrera to pay court costs and restitution for the interment of her victim: Lawrence Joseph Souza Jr.

Garrera struck Souza near the intersection of East Idaho Street and Seventh Avenue East North about 3 a.m., July 23, 2022, court documents said. En route to Logan Health Medical Center, where she was taking a sick friend, according to courtroom testimony, Garrera continued on without stopping, allegedly thinking she had struck an animal. 

Prosecutors said her blood alcohol content was 0.17.

“My brother was a beautiful human being,” said Souza’s sister, Heather McIsaac, who buried her face in her hands and sobbed. “He had a life with a lot of struggle in it. And right when he had gotten to the precipice of dealing with his trauma, he was left on the side of the road [like] road kill.”

At the defendant’s table, Garrera pressed her face into the orange sleeves of her inmate’s uniform as McIsaac spoke. 

McIsaac, who testified via video, told the court that she and Souza grew up in foster care and that her brother had suffered abuse as a child. He wrestled with trauma and addiction, and struggled overcoming a poor education until finally finding his way after moving to the Flathead Valley. 

“My brother was robbed of his future, his life,” McIsaac said. “He scraped his way from the bottom and he had finally risen to the top. The hardest part of this is [Souza] only knew darkness through the majority of his life.”

Her brother was 31 when he got his life on track, she said. He was 33 when he died. 

Largely reading from a prepared statement, Garrera apologized repeatedly for killing Souza when it came her turn to address the court. Saying she took full responsibility for his death, Garrera hoped to one day use the experience to mentor others. 

“Again, I am so sorry,” she said after finishing her statement. 

Pointing to her remorse and arguing that the only reason Garrera was on the road that night was to take a friend she believed deathly ill to the hospital, defense attorney Scott Hilderman unsuccessfully asked Wilson for a suspended 15-year sentence for the vehicular homicide conviction and a five-year sentence to the state Department of Corrections for the drug possession conviction. 

In his argument, Hilderman pointed to the sentence Wilson handed down in another vehicular homicide case earlier in the year. Wilson, Hilderman recalled, had given Apollo Guisto in January a 20-year sentence to the Department of Corrections with 15 years suspended for striking and killing a motorcyclist while drunk.

“The vast majority of these cases is somebody driving to a bar, from a bar, to a party or to get drugs and knows they’re intoxicated … not because of an emergency,” Hilderman said. “At that time, she was home where she was supposed to be when her friend became deathly ill.”

Wilson disagreed, describing the cases as dissimilar. Guisto, he said, made arrangements for restitution and voluntarily entered substance abuse treatment. He was on his way to rehabilitation when sentencing occurred, Wilson said. 

“In this case there was a callous disregard for Mr Souza's life,” Wilson said, nodding to Garrera’s decision to continue on her way to the hospital.

But Wilson noted that Garrera addressed the court and apologized when given the opportunity. He opted against adding a parole restriction, meaning Garrera would be eligible for consideration after serving a quarter of her sentence. 

A jury found Garrera guilty of vehicular homicide and drug possession in March. Deputy County Attorney John Donovan prosecuted the case.

Kalispell Police officers arrested Garrera for Souza’s death after receiving reports from hospital staff in July 2022 that they were treating patients injured in a motor vehicle crash involving a pedestrian, according to court documents. They later recovered a bag of dried mushrooms that tested positive for psilocyn in her vehicle, court documents alleged.