An 18-year-old Brownsville man, in the United States illegally, was found not guilty Wednesday of fleeing from law enforcement officers and causing an accident last year that left two women severely injured in Kenedy County.

The two-day trial for Frederico Mondragon-Alcazar wrapped up Wednesday afternoon with attorneys for both sides presenting their closing arguments to the jury in the 105th District Court of Judge Angelica Hernandez. Mondragon-Alcazar was accused of fleeing from a Texas Department of Public Safety state trooper on July 25 after the trooper clocked a vehicle carrying Mondragon-Alcazar and six other people speeding northbound down U.S. Highway 77 in Kenedy County, along with a second vehicle.

The six individuals in the SUV were later determined to be illegal immigrants from South America.

Prosecutors alleged that Mondragon-Alcazar was the driver of a blue 1999 Chevrolet sports utility vehicle that sped up and overtook the second vehicle, a Pontiac Aztec, in order to flee from the trooper, Valente Rosas.

The Aztec pulled over and the occupants bailed out and ran from the scene, according to a report on the incident, but the SUV continued traveling at a high rate of speed from the scene.

After a brief chase, the SUV pulled over, and then sped off again when the trooper approached the vehicle, according to the report. It cut across the median and was struck on the passenger side by a Pontiac G6 traveling southbound on Highway 77, causing all of the passengers in the SUV to be ejected from the vehicle. They all sustained various injuries, but the driver and passenger in the Pontiac were severely injured, with one woman left paralyzed from the waist down.

Defense attorney Nathan Fugate argued that there was no evidence that definitively identified Mondragon-Alcazar as the driver of the SUV, nor did any of the passengers come forward to do so. However, Rosas testified that he briefly saw Mondragon-Alcazar behind the wheel of the SUV during the chase after pulling alongside the vehicle.

Mondragon-Alcazar has maintained that he was a passenger and that someone else named “Juan Carlos” was driving the SUV. However, no one with that name was found at the scene, prosecutors said.

The jury deliberated for just over an hour before returning with “Not guilty” verdicts for all eight counts Mondragon-Alcazar had been facing – two counts of evading arrest or detention using a vehicle and causing bodily injury and six counts of unlawful transport.

A visibly relieved Mondragon-Alcazar, who was listening to the hearing via a Spanish translator, smiled broadly at his attorney after the verdict was announced.

“Although we are disappointed in the verdict, we have to respect the process and the decision of the jury,” District Attorney John Hubert said in a prepared statement Thursday. “We had probable cause and a witness’s ID of the defendant. With that evidence, we will take cases to trial.”

Fugate said he was happy with the outcome of the trial, but pointed out that Mondragon-Alcazar would still be deported because of his illegal immigrant status, a process Mondragon-Alcazar has gone through three times already.

“I really got to know the kid,” Fugate said on Wednesday. “It was a good day for justice today because they were trying to send an innocent kid to prison for this (crime) and the jury let them know they had the wrong man.”