A Gwinnett County woman who police say fatally ran over her granddaughter and lied about it could be out of jail soon.
Gilma J. Ordonez-Guevara was granted $70,000 bond at a probable cause hearing Friday afternoon, but she can only be released if she is also granted immigration bond. After her arrest on March 21, Ordonez-Guevara was placed on an immigration hold by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Ordonez-Guevara, 44, has lived in the United States for “many years” but arrived as an undocumented immigrant, her attorney Douglas Perry said Friday. He said he believes she will be granted immigration bond because she had “applied for [legal] status and been approved,” but had not received the proper paperwork before her arrest.
Ordonez-Guevara has children and grandchildren who are U.S. citizens, Perry said.
Ordonez-Guevara has been charged with vehicular homicide, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, felony hit-and-run and driving without a license. On March 21, she accidentally backed over her 23-month-old granddaughter Valeria Leiba in Leiba’s mother’s driveway.
Ordonez-Guevara had just brought Leiba, along with a grandson and one of her own children, back from a nearby park and thought Leiba was in the house when she began backing out of the driveway, Gwinnett County police officer Michael Mizurski said. When Mizurski arrived to the scene of the accident, Leiba was already dead, he said.
Ordonez-Guevara had driven her car, stained with Leiba’s blood, back to her house two blocks away and told Mizurski that she had arrived to the home on foot and found Leiba injured and unresponsive, Mizurski said. When police asked to see Ordonez-Guevara’s car, they found the blood and later arrested her in connection with the little girl’s death.
About the Author
