MIAMI – A Miami-Dade County judge sentenced a man to 15 years in prison on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of an attack on the Metromover that was recorded by a surveillance camera.
The video shows Robert Ribbs, now 62, savagely beating Eduardo Fernandez, now 74, and stealing $30 from his pocket during the Sept. 20, 2020 attack, according to the Miami Police Department.
Fernandez was on his way to work as a valet parking attendant that Sunday morning. He was hospitalized with broken bones, fractures, and internal bleeding. Christian Fernandez, the victim’s son, said his father was never the same after the attack.
“I hope you go behind bars your entire life. You destroyed my family. You destroyed my father, my father. You destroyed my memories, my memories. His memories,” the distraught son said in court Wednesday.
Last year, jurors couldn’t agree on a verdict, so there was a mistrial for robbery, aggravated battery, and battery on a person 65 or older. A retrial with a new jury found Ribbs guilty in October.
“The only thing I remember is that I was minding my own business, happy,” Fernandez said during his testimony in court last year.
Both times, Ribbs’ public defenders argued he deserved leniency. The defense said Ribbs had substance abuse issues, was homeless and didn’t have a clear recollection of the attack.