A 26-year-old man accused of killing and dismembering two motorcyclists with his truck in August 2023 while high on meth pleaded not guilty Thursday.
Johnathan Cervantes attended his arraignment Thursday afternoon in Goshen County District Court, along with his attorney Eric Palen and a translator.
The proceeding comes after Cervantes eluded the charges against him for nearly a year until immigration officials handed him over to Goshen County for prosecution, according to court documents.
“Your honor, my client is going to plead not guilty, thank you,” said Palen on Cervantes’ behalf.
Judge Edward Buchanan entered the not guilty pleas and said he’d set the case for a trial date within the next six months.
Cervantes faces two counts of aggravated vehicle homicide and one of felony meth possession. The first two counts each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines, while the drug charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines.
‘Completely Disintegrated’
The investigation started the evening of Aug. 11, 2023, when Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Samuel Szott responded to a two-vehicle crash on Highway 85 in Goshen County, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
Szott found a silver Dodge Ram 2500 pickup on its wheels in the grass on the road’s east side, and a Harley-Davidson trike motorcycle in the grass south of the pickup, says the document.
Only the rear wheels and seat were still connected. The rest of the motorcycle was completely destroyed, Szott wrote in the affidavit.
Two people who’d been riding in the trike had been “catastrophically dismembered” during the crashed and were dead, he added.
Witness statements indicated the pickup had been traveling north and the motorcycle south when the truck crossed the center lane and struck the trike head-on, the document says.
The road bore a tire mark and scrape marks tracking back toward the northbound lane, showing the impact happened in the southbound lane near the centerline. Szott found deep gouge marks in the centerline rumble strips.
“Scrapes, blood and debris tracked both vehicles to their final rest,” he wrote. “Severe crumpling damage to the front of the pickup also included blood and bone fragments in the grille, radiator and bumper areas.”
A male passenger of the truck said he was asleep during the crash.
Cervantes had been ejected from the truck and was severely injured.
The Meth Find
Authorities took Cervantes to a hospital in Loveland, Colorado.
But first, an emergency medical responder said he found a small plastic bag containing what looked like meth and two glass meth pipes in Cervantes’ socks, the affidavit says. The responder said he also could smell alcohol on Cervantes’ breath.
When Szott later collected the meth, it reportedly weighed in at 4.9 grams.
Szott found blood smear on the truck’s driver’s seat, which tracked upward toward the sunroof. The sunroof was destroyed, leaving a crater in the roof.
Cervantes was likely ejected through the sunroof during the rollover, wrote Szott.
The Dodge Ram’s airbag control module reportedly showed it was traveling at least 86 mph prior to the collision, which Szott called a low-ball assessment since the truck had oversized tires.
A witness handed Szott a wallet containing a U.S. permanent resident card registered to Cervantes. An ICE agent later said the card was a fake, says the affidavit.
In a follow-up interview with Cowboy State Daily in August, Szott said he was unable to confirm Cervantes’ immigration or citizenship status.
Checked Himself Out
Cervantes’ hospital toxicology records allegedly showed meth and benzodiazepines as well as alcohol in his blood.
Cervantes checked himself out of the hospital while the investigation was still pending and before there was a warrant for his arrest, Szott told Cowboy State Daily in August. He was arrested in Kansas in July on “unrelated charges,” added Szott.
Investigators originally dispatched a warrant for a “Jhonatan Cervantes” on Oct. 19, 2023, when Cervantes was first charged. That name is incorrect, so Goshen County Deputy Attorney Kenneth Brown filed a July 12, 2024, request to replace the first warrant with one seeking “Johnathan Cervantes,” the correct name.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
