Friend testifies he helped driver hide vehicle that killed 7-year-boy

Edgar Casas told jurors Friday that he reluctantly agreed to store an off-road vehicle at his home that hours earlier was involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed a 7-year-old boy leaving the River of Lights with his family.

Casas said he did so because his longtime friend, Sergio Almanza, was distraught that he had killed the child and needed a place to stash the Can-Am off-road vehicle.

“I told him I didn’t want it at my house,” Casas testified at Almanza’s trial in 2nd Judicial District Court. He agreed to store the vehicle because his friend was crying and upset, he said.

“He wouldn’t stop crying,” Casas said.

Almanza, 29, is charged with vehicular homicide while driving under the influence in the Dec. 12, 2021, death of Pronoy Bhattacharya, while the boy and his family were leaving the holiday display at the ABQ BioPark.

Pronoy was walking hand-in-hand with his father in the crosswalk at Tingley and Central at the time he was struck by a Can-Am off-road vehicle speeding west on Central Avenue.

Almanza acknowledges that he was illegally driving the off-road vehicle and fatally struck the boy. But his attorney, Ahmad Assed, disputes that Almanza was intoxicated at the time of the fatal crash.

Prosecutors told jurors that Almanza and his companions drank heavily in the hours before the 8:30 p.m. collision.

The 2,500-pound Can-Am vehicle was traveling an estimated 51 to 56 mph at the moment it struck Pronoy, who weighed 73 pounds, Joseph Manning, a crash reconstruction expert, testified Friday.

Manning told jurors that the driver of the Can-Am braked only 0.2 seconds before striking the child. There was no indicated the driver braked for the red light, he said.

Prosecutors with the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office told jurors the impact threw the boy 56 feet and he skidded another 100 feet on Central.

Almanza is also charged with great bodily harm by vehicle for striking and injuring the boy’s father, Aditya Bhattacharya. Pronoy died at the scene. His father was treated for facial fractures and other injuries and later released from a hospital.

In addition, Almanza is charged with knowingly leaving the scene of an accident, illegally driving an off-road vehicle on a paved street, and tampering with evidence.

Casas resumed his testimony after District Judge Brett Loveless signed an order Friday giving Casas immunity from prosecution for his involvement in concealing Almanza’s vehicle.

Almanza had parked the Can-Am in the driveway in front of Casas’ house the night of the fatal collision, Casas testified. He admitted moving the vehicle that night to a less conspicuous site behind his house at 98th and Central SW.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” he said. “I just moved it.”

Casas told jurors he also helped Almanza disassemble the Can-Am and admitted lying in his previous testimony when he denied doing so.

“I helped him take it apart,” Casas told jurors. Casas also said he gave Almanza some tools to help him disassemble the vehicle.

Casas’ admission on Wednesday that he had helped conceal the vehicle — an admission of a crime — led to lengthy delays as attorneys spent hours debating how to proceed. Casas had not been granted immunity from prosecution and had a constitutional right not to make statements that incriminated himself.

An attorney advised Casas on Thursday not to testify further before an immunity agreement was in place.

The trial continues on Monday.