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Driver Charged With Murder After Fatal Wreck While Fleeing Traffic Stop

Adelbert Redo

One person is dead after a driver sped away from a traffic stop on I-85 in Charlotte and then caused a fatal wreck on Little Rock Road. 

Police say a state trooper stopped Adelbert Redo for speeding near Little Rock Road just before 7 p.m. Monday.  As the trooper questioned him, Redo got back into his 2009 Lexus and started to drag the trooper, before heading north on I-85.

The trooper didn't follow. Redo sped off the exit at Little Rock Road and lost control. His car flew across the southbound lanes of Little Rock Road and struck two stopped cars, then a Chrysler minivan.

The wreck fatally injured the van's driver, Teresa Villanueva Ortuna, and hurt two others. Villaneuva died as a Medic ambulance took her and the passengers to the hospital.

After hitting the minivan, Redo ran from his car and was chased by an off-duty state trooper who had witnessed the crash. CMPD says Redo had been drinking.

He's now facing second-degree murder, driving while impaired and other charges from both CMPD and the state Highway Patrol.

David Boraks previously covered climate change and the environment for WFAE. See more at www.wfae.org/climate-news. He also has covered housing and homelessness, energy and the environment, transportation and business.