DUI suspect pleads guilty two years after pregnant mother, unborn baby killed in I-75 crash
TAMPA, Fla. - Mario Gonzalez was set to go to trial Tuesday morning, but before that, he had a change of heart.

Pictured: Mario Gonzalez in a Hillsborough County courtroom Tuesday.
He decided to do an open plea to the court and plead guilty to two counts of DUI manslaughter and let the judge decide his fate. It took more than two years to come to that resolution.
Prosecutors said Gonzalez was driving while on drugs on I-75 near SR-60 in Hillsborough County in the afternoon on June 18, 2021. That's when they said he suddenly lost control of his vehicle, overcorrected and slammed into a Publix semi-truck that was stopped in traffic.
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Pictured: DUI crash scene on I-75 from 2021.
They say his passenger, 27-year-old Vanessa Schmurr-Smith, who was eight months pregnant, was ejected and died from her injuries. Doctors also performed an emergency C-section, but her baby died months later.

Pictured: Vanessa Schmurr-Smith.
Gonzalez made it out of the crash without injuries and appeared to doze off while sitting on a concrete barrier afterward.
Later, prosecutor Christine Brown said Gonzalez failed a drug sobriety test, and further testing showed why.

"A blood draw was done, and they confirm the substances were methamphetamine, amphetamine, and fentanyl," explained Brown.
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Last week, his public defender Gabrielle Biggs blamed the crash on a mechanical issue: Bad brakes.
"The car it’s not going to immediately stop. It’s going to take me pumping it, not one time, it’s going to take me pumping it multiple times in order to get it to stop," argued Biggs.
But, Brown placed the blame squarely on Gonzalez.
"He did not use those brakes until the last few seconds the last 24 feet," said Brown.
Now that Gonzalez has made an open plea, Tampa Judge Barbara Twine-Thomas will decide how long he will spend in prison. His formal sentencing has been set for October 6, and Gonzalez is facing decades in prison.