A woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday in a wrong-way crash on Florida’s Turnpike in Broward County that killed a paramedic last year.
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Sunshine Perez, 45, was arrested back in April of 2025 and entered a guilty plea for the death of 23-year-old Ezekiel “Zeke” Urrutia.
Urrutia was killed in January after detectives found Perez was driving the wrong way on the Turnpike near Red Road when her SUV collided head-on with a car driven by the 23-year-old.
“I was supposed to watch my child grow up. I was supposed to hold his children and spoil them and watch the life that he worked hard to build. Instead, I watched the news and his body in a bag next to his car,” said Urrutia’s mother, Tiffany.
Video displayed in court showed all the warning signs that Perez was driving the wrong way as she sped down the Turnpike for more than two miles.
Perez sat hunched over and sobbing, her hands shackled. The 45-year-old told the court she was sorry for her actions and ready to accept the consequences
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“I will never forgive myself for the things that happened,” she said. “I know no words can change or do anything to stop this. I’m so sorry that it happened. It was an accident.”
According to toxicology reports, Perez’s blood alcohol content was above the legal limit, and she tested positive for oxycodone.
“I was working, and when I got off of work, I went to one of my friends’ house, I had a drink, and I said my back was hurting, and I took what I thought was medication,” she said. “Then I later found out in a toxicology report that there were things in my system that I do not do.”
Twenty-five impact statements were read Friday on behalf of the victim from witnesses who saw the crash, to teammates and best friends.
“No words can describe what it’s like when paramedics show up at your door — telling you your son was killed by a wrong-way driver,” said the victim’s father, Frank Urrutia.
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