{"id":148892,"date":"2026-02-09T14:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/148892\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:42:09","slug":"1998-deadly-crash-fugitive-patrick-lutts-returns-to-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/148892\/","title":{"rendered":"1998 deadly crash fugitive Patrick Lutts returns to Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A man accused of killing two people in a deadly crash in 1998 is back in the Orange County jail.<\/p>\n

Patrick Lutts was returned to Florida following his arrest in Toronto, Canada, last year.<\/p>\n

The crash occurred on Dec. 25, 1998, on SR-528 in Orlando and resulted in the deaths of 19-year-old Nancy Lopez Leon and 18-year-old Darvin DeJesus. <\/p>\n

Investigators determined Lutts was intoxicated at the time of the crash, with a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit.<\/p>\n

Lutts had previously reached a legal agreement with prosecutors regarding the crash. <\/p>\n

He agreed to serve 10 years in prison as part of a plea deal, but never appeared in court for his sentencing.<\/p>\n

The fugitive remained at large for several decades, though he was encountered by international authorities years before his eventual arrest. <\/p>\n

Lutts first tried to enter Canada in 2003, but officials denied him entry at that time because of the open criminal case in Florida.<\/p>\n

The search for Lutts reached a conclusion following a recent lead. <\/p>\n

Investigators received a tip from Florida stating that he was living in Toronto. <\/p>\n

Authorities located and arrested him in the Canadian city in May 2023.<\/p>\n

Lutts is currently being held at the Orange County Jail where he is waiting to be sentenced.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

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\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A man accused of killing two people in a deadly crash in 1998 is back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46540,38305,9984,1060,2777,72017,9063,72015,13139,28,30,29,634,43430,72019,72014,72018,115,1300,70594,139,72013,72016,7022,1045],"class_list":{"0":"post-148892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-_canada","9":"tag-38305","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-channel_9","12":"tag-channel_nine","13":"tag-christmas_day_1998","14":"tag-darlene_jones","15":"tag-darwin_dejesus","16":"tag-eyewitness_news","17":"tag-florida","18":"tag-florida-headlines","19":"tag-florida-news","20":"tag-local","21":"tag-lutz","22":"tag-nancy","23":"tag-nancy_lopez","24":"tag-nancy_lopez_leon","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-orange_county","27":"tag-orange_county_jail","28":"tag-orlando","29":"tag-patrick_lutz","30":"tag-patrick_lutz_jr","31":"tag-toronto","32":"tag-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}