Luis Gutierrez is a worried dad, not a furious man ramming taxicabs with his pickup truck, a jury has found.
Gutierrez, a 22-year-old construction worker from South San Francisco, was acquitted of a "slew" of felonies, including four counts of assault with a deadly weapon -- his truck -- stemming from a chaotic late-night checkup on his young son, according to the San Francisco public defender, which won his acquittal this week.
Gutierrez was arrested in October following a bizarre late-night incident outside the home of his son's mother, with whom he no longer has a relationship.
Unsure of his son's welfare after the boy had fallen ill, Gutierrez drove to the Visitacion Valley home where the son lived with his mother. The lights were off and the home was empty -- because the son had been taken to Manteca by his grandmother -- so Gutierrez settled into his truck to wait, according to the San Francisco Public Defender.
He'd tried to get in touch via telephone with no luck, so he waited outside his son's home until 2 a.m., when his ex-girlfriend returned in a taxicab
Upon seeing Gutierrez, the ex-girlfriend jumped back into the cab, which drove away. He was arrested after he tried to block the cab with his pickup truck -- and that led to a collision and four felony assault charges.
In a statement, Public Defender Jeff Adachi said the case was an example of "overcharging" by prosecutors.
