Unlicensed Milwaukee hotel valet gets 15 years in prison for fatal crash

An unlicensed former hotel valet will spend the next 15 years in prison for a fatal crash that claimed the life of a DoorDash driver.

Milwaukee County District Court Judge Michelle A. Havas sentenced Marco A. Gomez to prison on Friday. She also ordered him to serve 10 years of extended supervision after he is released.

Gomez, 23, of Milwaukee, admitted he was drunk when he picked up a rental car belonging to a guest at a downtown Milwaukee hotel on July 3.

He later ran a red light at a high rate of speed and crashed into another vehicle at North 11th Street and West Wisconsin Avenue, killing the other driver in the early hours of July 4, according to a criminal complaint.

Gomez pleaded guilty in September to second-degree manslaughter and intoxication manslaughter in an accident

For two convictions, he will simultaneously serve two sentences in the form of 15 years in prison with credit for 114 days of time served.

The medical examiner identified the person who died as Michael D. Starks, 29, of Brown Deer. Starkiv, also known for friends and family as R’eay Reignwas working as a DoorDash driver and was making a delivery at the time of the crash, according to GoFundMe page.

Prosecutors said in court documents that Gomez never held a Wisconsin driver’s license.

Other recent fatal cases

The jury convicted Akol Riak in May on six felony charges, including two counts of second-degree reckless homicide, in connection with the Jan. 7 crash at West Brown Deer Road and North Servite Drive who killed Monique Stewart. Stewart was a passenger in a car with four other family members, including her mother and 8-year-old daughter, who were on their way to a family reunion. At that time, she was eight months pregnant. Riak, 19 years old sentenced to 14 years in prison in prison
Papa Diallo admitted murder of the Muskego couple in an accident on April 23 when he tried to flee a sheriff’s deputy for crossing a fog strip on the road. Pursuit speeds reached 70 miles per hour. The chase ended at 27th Street and St. Paul Avenue when Diallo collided with a Toyota Camry occupied by John and Barbara Zablocki. Diallo, 24, pleaded guilty in August to two counts of first-degree negligent homicide. This month he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In September, the jury found Frank Mosley21, guilty of negligent homicide, which occurred on the part of a the accident last year that killed Erin Mogenson. A Wauwatosa police officer attempted to pull over a BMW for no license plate around 10:40 a.m. Nov. 2, 2023, on West Capitol Drive. The driver did not stop and a chase began. The pursuit ended when the BMW crashed into a Toyota driven by Mogenson at Capitol and North 100th Street. The 32-year-old Shorewood woman was two months pregnant at the time. His sentence should be announced on November 21.

Distracted driving continues to be a problem in the Milwaukee area

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates that about 3,000 people are injured each year in the state by reckless drivers; In 2023, 91 people were killed.

At least 74 people died in accidents on the roads of Milwaukee County in 2024 by Oct. 20, the most recent figure provided by the department on Thursday.

Milwaukee police have 3,400 speeding tickets were issued this year compared to 6,518 tickets for all of 2013, city traffic data show. Overall, about a third of the citations this year were handed out to drivers who were pulled over for going 20 mph over the posted speed limit.