A very time fugitive searched for homicide in Florida admits that it was “a mistake” to flee to Toronto, where he was arrested recently after spending more than 21 years in the race.
In an affidavit obtained by CBC News, Patrick Lutts Jr. publicly describes for the first time how he hid from the US authorities after his participation in a drunk driving accident in Orlando, Florida, who killed two teenagers.
Lutts has no passport, he said, there is no Canadian bank account and had stayed in the same apartment in the Church of Toronto and the Wellesley neighborhood since 2004.
TO CBC research He revealed earlier this month that Lutts, 51, lived openly in Toronto after skipping a guilt hearing in a Florida court in 2003. With an arrest warrant, Lutts organized monthly trivia nights in a local bar and, under the alias Pat LightHelp, provided relationship advice to customers as a psychic online.
“I thought the authorities could find me while I stayed in the same place in Toronto for more than 20 years,” Lutts wrote. “That day he never arrived so far, but I’m tired of running.”
The affidavit, dated March 25, was presented at the Superior Court of Ontario, since Lutts asked to be released on bail, waiting for extradition to Florida. Later, a judge denied his request, and Lutts remains in a custody in a Toronto prison.
His arrest in February for the fugitive squad of the Toronto Police Service occurred after a Crime Stoppers type service in Florida received an anonymous advice on his whereabouts in November 2023. The Council seems to have come from a US Internet detective. UU. who claims to have used facial recognition technology and social networks to track Lutts to Toronto.
According to judicial records, Lutts faces up to 30 years in prison if he is declared guilty for the two homicide charges in DUI. The charges come from a morning accident on Christmas Day 1998 who killed Nancy López, 19, and her boyfriend, Darvin Javier Dejesus-Taboada, 18.
The researchers said that Lutts, whose truck crashed into the vehicle that took the two teenagers, had a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit and a “strong smell of alcohol that came out of her breath.”
“I know that the accusations against me are extremely serious,” Lutts said in the affidavit, describing the accident as “the vehicle accident in which I was involved.”
Lutts said that “he was never contacted personally or approached by the authorities” on Florida positions established in March 1999 until his arrest for another incident of deteriorated driving in Connecticut in 2002.
The following year, Lutts, an American citizen, admits that he fled to Canada instead of attending his guilt audience scheduled for October 1, 2003.
“At that time, a passport was not required” to cross the border, Lutts wrote.
It is not clear how exactly Lutts entered the country. According to the Archives of the Ontario Court, it does not have a legal immigration state and the Canada Border Services Agency has no record of its entry.
Lutts tried to cross in a port of entry of Niagara Falls, Ontario, on September 29, 2003, two days before that audience of the key court, but was rejected due to criminal charges in Florida, according to an affidavit of the police.
Even so, Lutts counts establishing himself in Toronto that year and meeting his lifelong partner in 2004. In a matter of months, Lutts says he moved to his partner’s apartment, where the Toronto police placed him under surveillance in December 2023.
Lutts says he used his real name to open a FIDO cell phone account and a mailbox.
Even so, he said, “to go to Canada and not face the position of Florida was a mistake.”
Lutts remains a risk of escape: prosecutor
In a letter included in the Archive of the Ontario Court of Lutts, a main prosecutor from Florida asked in March that the Canadian authorities deny the bail of the long -standing fugitive.
“Mr. Lutts has already shown that it is a risk of escape and will flee if liberation is granted,” state prosecutor Brian C. Hagner wrote.
“When fleeing to Canada, Mr. Lutts has demonstrated the lengths at which he will go to respond for the crimes with which he has been accused.”
Lutts’s affidavit said otherwise: he insisted that he cannot flee from the United States, where his family lives, because “I know they would arrest me immediately.” In addition, “I can’t flee anywhere because I don’t have a passport.”
However, the public publications of social networks in recent years suggest that Lutts moved freely within Canada, including multiple skiing trips to Whistler, BC
Lutts promised to remain in the house arrest in his home in Toronto and use an ankle monitor that could track it through a global positioning system if released on bail.
The reasons for the judge to deny the bail do not appear in the judicial archive. The Canadian courts weigh a series of factors when considering whether to publish a defendant, including if they will be presented to the scheduled hearings and if their release would undermine confidence in the justice system.
‘You are no longer running’: the victim’s family
Lutts appeared twice this week on a court in the center of Toronto by Videoolink in jail. Your case is scheduled to return in June. A date for a formal extradition audience has not been established.
Ralph Anthony Cordero, whose stepsister, Nancy López, died in the 1998 accident, saw a live video on Wednesday morning from his home in the state of Washington.
“It was very nice to see that he is not running free,” Cordero told CBC after Lutts appeared on the screen, with an orange jail outfit. Lamb said that his family never lost hope that Lutts was found, even after more than two decades in the LAM.
“The motivator” for López’s loved ones, Cordero said: “It was to make sure that this guy does not die before having our hands on him.”
