Illegal immigrant from Mexico has been charged with second-degree murder in a fiery wreck that killed a UNC Charlotte student

Cleve R. Wootson Jr.:

A Mecklenburg judge ordered a $1.6 million bond Tuesday for an illegal immigrant charged in a fatal wreck, as authorities continued to unravel his history of impaired driving and illegally crossing the border from his native Mexico.

Jorge Humberto Hernandez Soto, who broke an ankle in Friday's head-on crash, sat in a wheelchair listening to an interpreter as a prosecutor told District Judge Hugh Lewis about the case against him.

Assistant District Attorney Beth Freeman said Hernandez Soto was drunk and driving the wrong way on Interstate 485 early Friday when he hit a car driven by 18-year-old Min Chang head-on. Chang, a UNC Charlotte freshman, died in the fiery crash just north of Rocky River Road in northeast Charlotte.

Hernandez Soto has been charged at least three times with impaired driving and convicted at least twice, authorities said. Immigration officials told the Observer on Tuesday he's been caught entering the country up to three times in the same month.

Once, authorities caught him in the U.S. on two consecutive days, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman said.

"He keeps coming back to our country and driving while impaired," Freeman told the judge Tuesday.

Hernandez Soto, 35, did not speak during the hearing.

Freeman asked Lewis to set a million-dollar bond, but Lewis told her he had done his own calculations. He set a bond for each charge: second-degree murder, $1 million; manslaughter, $500,000; and driving while impaired, $100,000.

Because Hernandez Soto can't afford an attorney, Lewis ordered one appointed for him. He should have an attorney before his next appearance Dec. 5.

Hernandez Soto uses several different names, which has made it difficult to obtain his criminal records, authorities said.

The DWI convictions, according to troopers, were in Colorado and Jackson County, Tenn. Details were not available.

Between 1996 and 2000, Hernandez Soto entered the country 17 times, said Salvador Zamora, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol.

Hernandez Soto crossed from Douglas, Ariz., at least eight times, but was caught and sent back to Mexico repeatedly, Zamora said.

He also got caught crossing in Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, Texas, Zamora said. Hernandez Soto told immigration officials he is from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, south of El Paso.

Authorities do not know when he last crossed the border or how long he's been in the States. He was last deported in August 2000.

Trooper Brian Huffstickler said Hernandez Soto told the Highway Patrol he'd been working as a vegetable processor in South Carolina. He also told them he doesn't remember anything about the wreck.

First Sgt. Joe Melone said the SUV that Hernandez Soto was driving was registered in three different states, most recently Virginia. Troopers had not figured out who owned it or whether it was insured.

Hernandez Soto told the Observer on Saturday he has been living in Florence County, S.C., about 130 miles southeast of Charlotte. He said he came to Charlotte to pick up the SUV for a friend and had six beers before the crash. He also expressed remorse about Chang's death.

Troopers have not said where Hernandez Soto got on the interstate going the wrong direction. They have said he was going more than 100 mph and other drivers reported swerving to miss him.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said seven people called 911 to report a wrong-way driver.

Five troopers -- all of whom worked on the case -- sat together on a front bench during Tuesday's hearing.

"We wanted to give the impression to the court that we are behind the charges we filed 1,000 percent. We wanted (Hernandez Soto) to see us to let him fully understand what he is up against," Huffstickler said.

"The young man that was killed should be graduating from college in three years. He should not have been killed. If it were not for Mr. Hernandez, he would have been in school today."

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