Truck driver found guilty of murder for stabbing co-driver in cab on I-70 in Indiana

A jury in Wayne County, Indiana, returned a guilty verdict for a truck driver accused of killing his co-driver in the summer of 2019.

Florida-based truck driver Pavel Nery-Gonzalez, 50, was found guilty on a homicide charge, according to a May 19 report from the Palladium-Item. The trial was expected to last two weeks, but only lasted four days.

Fifty-five year old Florida-based truck driver Angel Cruz passed away as a result of injuries sustained during an August 16, 2019, in-cab altercation on eastbound I-70 near Richmond, Indiana, with his co-driver Nery-Gonzalez.

When police arrived on the scene in response to calls about a disabled semi truck on the shoulder, they found Cruz in the cab of the truck suffering from multiple stab wounds to his upper torso and neck. He was taken to the hospital following the attack and underwent emergency surgery but died days later.

Police said that when officers arrived on the scene, Nery-Gonzalez stepped down out of the truck, handed over a blood-covered knife, and told Wayne County Sheriff’s Patrolman Shane Brown, “I stabbed him,” and surrendered.

Authorities say that Nery-Gonzalez and Cruz had been operating as team drivers for a three month period and were hauling produce from Chino, California, to a location in New York when the stabbing occurred.

Nery-Gonzalez has remained in the Wayne County Jail since his arrest.

Nery-Gonzalez faces sentencing on May 31, 2022.