Background: An image of Maxwell Barrios’ car after the April 2, 2023 crash in Tulare, Calif. (Tulare County District Attorney’s Office). Inset: Maxwell Barrios (Tulare County District Attorney’s Office).
A California man who told officers to “just take me in” while being questioned after a car crash in 2023 pleaded guilty to the charges against him and is now headed to prison.
The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release on Thursday that Maxwell Barrios, 28, pleaded guilty in February to felony DUI causing injury, felony DUI with a BAC .08% or more, and felony driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs two years after he crashed his Honda HRV into a car carrying two women. Both women survived, but suffered “massive” injuries, according to the DA.
At the scene of the crash, the DA stated that Barrios drunkenly told officers to “just take me in” after he “pled the fifth.”
According to the DA, the crash occurred at about 2:20 a.m. on April 2, 2023, in Tulare, California, in California’s Central Valley. Barrios, driving the red HRV, brutally rear-ended a Dodge truck “at a high rate of speed” that flipped the car over with so much momentum that it ended up back on its wheels.
The women inside, who were not identified, were both taken to an area hospital to be treated for serious injuries. While both victims suffered various non-life-threatening injuries, one woman ultimately had one of her arms partially amputated. The DA stated that she has already undergone 10 surgeries related to her injuries from the crash “with more scheduled.” The other woman required “extensive surgery” on one of her hands.
While Barrios was receiving medical attention after the crash, the DA said he was slurring his words and wanted to apologize to the victims. He also said that “people told him not to drive drunk” before he got behind the wheel that night.
Barrios was later discovered to have a blood alcohol content of .23%, well above the legal limit of .08%. The DA said he was also high, with levels of Delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in his system.
After pleading guilty on Feb. 25 to all the charges against him, Barrios was sentenced on Wednesday to four years and four months in state prison.
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