On November 5, Mexican national, Ramon Neri, 23, admitted to driving drunk and causing the crash that took the life of a father of five, Tika Koirala, on Christmas morning last year.
Neri had a Blood Alcohol Concentration of .16 at the time of the accident.
Neri tried to play upon the court’s sympathies, saying that he first walked across the border when he was only 15, ending up in New York in order to help his family. Through an interpreter, he said: “I was the one that was helping them stay afloat financially.”
Over the next several years, he went back to Mexico, only to return to this country again. During that time, he was arrested multiple times in both New York and Nashville. Among the arrests, there were several for driving without a license.
The widow of the man he killed, Bhima Koirala, was also in court and told her own story of hardship. She and her husband came to the United States with their five children a year ago from Lilai, a small island near Indonesia. They came here in search of a better life, she said.
Koirala told Judge Mark Fishburn: “Who is going to look after my family and my children? I'm ill-equipped. After my husband's death, I've got so much trouble.”
Looking directly at the illegal alien, Koirala said: “I want him punished.”...
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