Truck driver sentenced to 55 years for stabbing co-driver in cab on I-70 in Indiana

A Florida-based truck driver has been sentenced to prison after he was found guilty of murdering another truck driver in 2019.

On July 13, Pavel Nery-Gonzalez, 50, was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Nery-Gonzalez was found guilty of murder following a four day jury trial in May 2022.

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 in 2019.