A motorist in Riverside has been found guilty of first-degree murder after intentionally running over and killing a 46-year-old man. Sergio Reynaldo Gutierrez, a 33-year-old resident of Riverside, struck and killed Benedicto Solanga in July 2021. The Riverside jury, after three days of deliberation, convicted Gutierrez of murder and also found him guilty of using his pickup truck as a deadly weapon during the commission of the crime.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst has scheduled the sentencing hearing for December 15th at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Gutierrez faces a prison sentence of 25 years to life. He is currently being held without bail at the nearby Robert Presley Jail.
According to the prosecution’s trial brief, the incident occurred on the afternoon of July 29, 2021. Gutierrez was driving his Ford F-250 on Market Street, near the Pomona (60) Freeway underpass when he came across Solanga walking with his bicycle and an unidentified friend in the opposite direction. The brief stated that Gutierrez honked his horn, made an obscene gesture toward Solanga, and then made a U-turn. He abruptly swerved and struck Solanga from behind, causing him to be thrown into the air and land face down.
Prosecutors revealed that the friend walking with Solanga was unharmed. Gutierrez fled the scene of the crime in his pickup truck, running a red light in an attempt to evade witnesses who were following him. The motivation behind Gutierrez’s hostility towards the victim was not disclosed.
Solanga was taken to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries three days later, according to Riverside police Officer Ryan Railsback. Detectives spent the next three weeks identifying the driver of the pickup truck and ultimately confirmed it was Gutierrez. One of the key witnesses in the investigation was a member of the Riverside Auto-Theft Interdiction Detail Task Force, who had encountered Gutierrez earlier that day with the Ford F-250 in the Santa Ana River bottom, attempting to get the vehicle running.
Court papers revealed that the officer noticed graffiti on the pickup truck bearing the message “Don’t mess with this truck.” Gutierrez was arrested without incident on August 17, 2021. He does not have any previous felony convictions in Riverside County.
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