SUGARLOAF KEY, Fla. – A Hialeah Gardens woman who went out drinking with two teenagers in the Florida Keys, then took the wheel and killed one of them in a crash, was arrested more than two years after fleeing authorities, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Authorities booked Aaliyah Marie Alberto, 25, into the Monroe County Jail on Wednesday on multiple charges relating to the April 29, 2021, crash.
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According to an FHP arrest report, Alberto was 23 when she and an 18-year-old man picked up 13-year-old Jaselle Isabella Diaz from the Horace O’Bryant School in Key West, then went to the Beachfront Marriott, where the three “appeared to have consume(d) alcohol that was in what appears to resemble laboratory test tubes.”
The three then left and stopped at a Circle K before attempting to go the Jumping Bridge on Sugarloaf Key, troopers said. They would not make it there.
Alberto, who didn’t have a driver’s license, having failed the written test three times, was driving an estimated 50-60 mph in the wrong direction on Old State Road 4A, which has a 25 mph speed limit, when she crashed into a tree and then a marsh, the report states.
The 18-year-old was ejected from the vehicle and taken to Jackson South Medical Center, while firefighters had a hard time extricating Jaselle from the vehicle, having to stand on ladders to avoid being bogged down by mud, according to FHP.
Jaselle was eventually airlifted to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, having taken “the blunt of the damage,” but died of her injuries, the report states.
Alberto, however, “based on reports from other deputies, only wanted medical attention after she heard Ms. Diaz had passed,” the report states.
According to FHP, she also lied and said there was a fourth occupant in the vehicle. After a search, authorities couldn’t find that phantom passenger.
Alberto was taken to the Lower Keys Medical Center but later escaped with the help of a family friend and fled the Keys, troopers wrote. She was on probation at the time.
Trooper Yo-Quel Tsoi wrote that the surviving, then 18-year-old passenger “has suffered physically and psychologically from the crash and has never been the same.”
Alberto, following her arrest Wednesday, was being held in the Monroe County Jail on charges of vehicular homicide, reckless driving, driving without a license and making a false report with police.
She’s set to be arraigned this upcoming Wednesday.