MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Officers released several videos on Friday in the case of a DUI hit-and-run crash in Miami Beach. It involved an ex-porn star who was accused of running over a pastor. She was driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs before taking her damaged car to a skyscraper to visit a celebrity friend in South Beach, police said.
Katherine Colabella was behind the wheel of a black Mercedes-Benz. She was traveling eastbound on the six-lane MacArthur Causeway on March 25, police said. Rev. Noé Aguilar, of the Pentecostal Church of God, was on his way home after work about 11:30 p.m. near the Terminal Isle.
Video shows the mangled bicycle Aguilar, a father of two, was riding. Instead of stopping to help him, Colabella, 31, drove to the Continuum, a residential skyscraper on South Beach, police said. She gave the car keys to a valet attendant who quickly noticed she had been involved in a crash, police said.
The Continuum’s staff reported it to the police. Video shows when officers approached her car. It had a cracked windshield and a wide dent on the hood. A tow truck driver removed it from the Continuum’s parking garage and police officers seized it.
Video shows Colabella walking into the police department the next day to talk about her car’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Aguilar was fighting for his life at Jackson Memorial Hospital after suffering a head injury. His family was worried when he didn’t return home.
Colabella told police officers she drove to the Continuum to visit a friend. Video shows she was drinking water in between sentences. She told a detective her friend was La Mar C. Taylor, The Weeknd’s creative director. Officers arrested her shortly after on March 26.
Aguilar is still undergoing treatment. Jessy Hernandez organized a GoFundMe fundraiser to benefit Aguilar’s wife, Lidia Hernandez, who is a stay-at-home mother of two.
Prosecutors charged Colabella with two felony charges: Leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury and reckless driving with serious bodily injury.
Records show no action was taken on the charge of reckless driving with serious bodily injury. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian allowed Colabella to be released on a $7,500 bond on March 30.
Miami-Dade County records show a public defender who represented Colabella filed a written plea of not guilty on April 6 and there is a pending trial hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on June 28.