Updated: 7/20/2007 3:00:24 PM
By SHEILA BURKE, The Tennessean
An illegal immigrant convicted in a fatal drunk driving wreck in Nashville had been deported from the U.S. three times and allowed to leave voluntarily on eleven other occasions before the accident that claimed the life of a local guitar maker.
The revelation came during testimony by a federal agent at a sentencing hearing today for Julio Villasana. It was not immediately clear how he managed to re-enter the U.S. Villasana, 34, was convicted of killing Charlie Derrington in the Aug. 1, 2006, wreck.
Derrington was a noted mandolin maker for Gibson Musical Instruments who reconstructed bluegrass legend Bill Monroe's prized instrument. He had been riding his motorcycle on Briley Parkway north of Nashville when he collided with a Villasana?s car, which had been traveling in the wrong direction.
Villasana, who at the time lived in Louisville, Ky., fled the scene but was arrested later on suspicion of drunken driving, police said.
Derrington was the production manager of Nashville-based Gibson's mandolin division. He reassembled Monroe's favorite 1925 Gibson mandolin after it was smashed to pieces by a burglar in his home. The instrument is now on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The testimony about the deportations was given by an agent from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Other witnesses, including relatives of the victim, were giving victim impact statements.
Villasana is expected to be sentenced after the testimony.
