Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of a dismembering double-fatality crash. Read at your discretion.
After immigration officials detained him, Goshen County, Wyoming, authorities now have custody of a 26-year-old man accused of killing and dismembering two motorcyclists with his truck last August while high on meth.
Johnathan Cervantes was brought back to Wyoming on Wednesday after a state judge ordered the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement to give Cervantes to the state’s justice system.
Cervantes is scheduled for an Aug. 26 preliminary hearing in Torrington Circuit Court to contest two charges of aggravated vehicular homicide and one of felony meth possession. The first two counts each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines, while the drug charge carries a maximum of seven years in prison and $15,000 in fines.
A witnesses told Cowboy State Daily at the time that while trying to pass a vehicle, Cervantes' pickup hit the motorcycle at such a high rate of speed that the pickup went airborne, hit the embankment and rolled several times before it stopped.
The motorcycle "completely disintegrated," the witness said.
'Completely Disintegrated'
Wyoming Highway Patrol Master Samuel Szott responded the evening of Aug. 11, 2023, to a two-vehicle crash on Highway 85 in Goshen County at mile marker 85, according to an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
Szott found a silver Dodge Ram 2500 pickup on its wheels in the grass on the road’s east side and a Harley-Davidson trike motorcycle in the grass south of the pickup, says the document.
Only the rear wheels and seat were still connected: the rest of the motorcycle was completely destroyed, Szott wrote.
Two people who’d been riding in the trike had been “catastrophically dismembered” during the crashed and were deceased, he added.
Witness statements indicated the pickup had been traveling north and the motorcycle south when the truck crossed the center lane and struck the trike head-on, the document says.
The road bore a tire mark and scrape marks tracking back toward the northbound lane, showing the impact happened in the southbound lane near the centerline, reportedly. Szott found deep gouge marks in the centerline rumble strips.
“Scrapes, blood and debris tracked both vehicles to their final rest,” he wrote. “Severe crumpling damage to the front of the pickup also included blood and bone fragments in the grille, radiator and bumper areas.”
A male passenger of the truck said he was asleep during the crash.
Cervantes had been ejected from the truck and was severely injured.
Cervantes was taken to a hospital in Loveland, Colorado. But first, an emergency medical responder said he found a small plastic bag containing what looked like meth and two glass meth pipes in Cervantes’ socks, the affidavit says. The responder said he could smell alcohol on Cervantes’ breath also.
When Szott later collected the meth, it reportedly weighed in at 4.9 grams.
The Exit Streaks
Szott found blood smear on the truck’s driver’s seat, which tracked upward toward the sunroof. The sunroof was destroyed, leaving a crater in the roof.
Cervantes was likely ejected through the sunroof during the rollover, wrote Szott.
The Dodge Ram’s airbag control module reportedly showed it was traveling at least 86mph prior to the collision, which Szott called a low-ball assessment since the truck had oversized tires.
A witness handed Szott a wallet containing a U.S. permanent resident card registered to Cervantes. An ICE agent later said the card was a fake, says the affidavit.
Checked Himself Out
Cervantes’ hospital toxicology records allegedly showed meth and benzodiazepines as well as alcohol in his blood.
Cervantes checked himself out of the hospital while the investigation was still pending and before there was a warrant for his arrest, Szott told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. He was arrested in Kansas last month on “unrelated charges,” added Szott.
The sheriff of Chase County, Kansas, could not be reached for comment by publication time.
Investigators originally dispatched a warrant for a “Jhonatan Cervantes” on Oct. 19, 2023, when Cervantes was first charged. That name is incorrect, so Goshen County Deputy Attorney Kenneth Brown filed a July 12, 2024, request to replace the first warrant with one seeking “Johnathan Cervantes,” the correct name.
Cervantes is being held in the Goshen County Detention Center on a $500,000 cash-only bond.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
