Morales-Soriano, a Mexican national, refused a breathalizer test on Feb 5 after an accident which should have suspended his North Carolina drivers license, but a police error allowed him to keep it. In July, he used the NC license to obtain a Maryland DL. Maryland does not require proof of legal residency to get a drivers license.
Morales-Soriano has also been charged with two counts of homicide by motor vehicle in the deaths of Marine Cpl. Brian Mathews, 21, of Columbia, and his date for the evening, Jennifer Bower, 24, of Montgomery Village. Mathews had recently finished eight months of duty in Iraq last year and planned to leave the military in June.Morales-Soriano, who, Howard County Police said, had a blood-alcohol level four times the legal limit, was not injured in the crash. He is being held in the Howard County Detention Center in lieu of $830,000 bail. [Man Charged in Marine's Death, NBC4 11/30/06]
Bill O'Reilly covered this case on Thursday, explaining how unacceptably low standards for drivers licenses and general permissiveness regarding illegal immigration contributed to yet another death by an illegal alien:
"The bottom line is that you have an Iraqi veteran and his girlfriend dead because North Carolina will not check a driver's license application and Maryland will not act aggressively when stopping people they suspect of being in the country illegally. That is the state of the union in the United States in 2006."
It's a shame that the House immigration bill was not signed into law because it included Rep. Sue Myrick's tough drunk driving provision: "Myrick: You're drunk, you're driving, you're illegal, you're deported, period."
Marine Cpl. Brian Mathews lived through a tour of duty in Iraq, but was struck down in his own country by a 
