OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Florida Highway Patrol troopers on Monday arrested a man accused of causing a drunken crash in November that killed a 26-year-old woman and seriously injured three others in Osceola County.
The woman was the rear left passenger in a Chrysler Sebring driven by Jens Anthony Ortuno Talavera, 26, who was also hospitalized after the two-vehicle wreck for treatment of serious injuries. He faces charges of DUI manslaughter, failure to register a motor vehicle, three counts of DUI with serious bodily injury to another and four counts of driving with license suspended causing death or serious injury, booking records show.
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Ortuno Talavera was traveling north with three passengers on Orange Blossom Trail, south of Sundown Drive, when he crossed the intermittent yellow line and entered the direct path of a Toyota Corolla that was headed southbound around 10 p.m. on Nov. 19, troopers said. According to an FHP arrest report, Ortuno Talavera was attempting to swerve back into the northbound lane when the left side of the Chrysler collided with the front of the Corolla.
Both vehicles’ drivers were entrapped after the crash — with the 30-year-old Kissimmee man in the Corolla noted as its only occupant — and all involved suffered serious injuries except for the 26-year-old woman who was pronounced dead at the scene, troopers said. The initial FHP crash report lists the drivers of both vehicles as the only people involved in the wreck who were wearing seat belts. The other two passengers in the Chrysler were initially described by troopers as a 26-year-old man and a 40-year-old man.
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The day after the crash, troopers interviewed Ortuno Talavera at a hospital. He allegedly told investigators that the road was wet and a vehicle in front of him had slowed down too fast for him to stop for it. Ortuno Talavera further told the two FHP corporals speaking with him that he had consumed six beers at a friend’s house in Haines City before the drive. A warrant obtained that day for Ortuno Talavera’s medical records reportedly revealed he had a blood alcohol content of .217 mg/dl at the time of the crash, more than 2.5 times above Florida’s legal limit, troopers said. Regarding “numerous Modelo beer cans” found at the scene of the crash, Ortuno Talavera told investigators that his passengers were drinking those, but he was not.
Though he was described as a Lakeland man in FHP’s initial crash report, investigators say they’ve since learned Ortuno Talavera had only a Nicaragua ID and was never issued any U.S. identification. Reportedly living out of the now-totaled vehicle, Ortuno Talavera “has no residency or ties to Florida,” he has claimed his nearest family is located in New Jersey and he advised FHP that “he entered the country via the Texas border,” prompting troopers to deem him a flight risk. No further details about his national origin had been shared at the time of this report and he faces no charges related to being in the U.S. illegally.
Troopers additionally contacted the Chrysler’s previous owner, who reportedly stated they sold the vehicle to Ortuno Talavera this October in Wisconsin for $1,000 on Facebook Marketplace under a verbal promise that the car would be registered within two days. It was not, according to the arrest report, and due to how the previous registered owner had still signed the vehicle’s title over to Ortuno Talavera, troopers affirmed that he owned the Chrysler at the time of the crash.
Ortuno Talavera was arrested upon arriving to FHP Station Troop D on Monday afternoon to pick up his belongings in evidence. He’s currently being held at the Osceola County Jail on no bond amount.
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