MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Detectives reported video shows Ariel Rodriguez Martinez was behind the wheel of a blue 2023 Chevrolet Equinox when he stepped on the gas, ran over a man, and fled on Wednesday in southwest Miami-Dade.
A witness reported Rodriguez had first rear-ended a woman’s 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe in a shopping mall near Southwest 152 Street and Lindgren Road. Jose De Trinidad ran to the woman’s aid.
The witness reported De Trinidad stepped before the Chevrolet Equinox, placed his palm on the hood, and said, “Stop! I saw everything!”
After running over De Trinidad, Rodriguez sped southbound on Lindgren Road, according to the arrest report. Police officers reported finding him near Southwest 184 Street and 147 Avenue, as he was “swerving back and forth within and out of the lane onto the grass on the right side of the roadway.”
A police officer reported that after stopping Rodriguez near Southwest 178 Terrace and 147 Avenue, his breath smelled like “an alcoholic beverage,” he had “bloodshot and watery eyes,” and his “fly was down.”
De Trinidad later died at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Rodriguez confessed to drinking alcohol for two hours, but he said he didn’t remember crashing or running over a man, according to police.
Miami-Dade correctional officers booked Rodriguez shortly before 12:20 a.m., on Thursday, at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
Rodriguez appeared before Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer who denied him bond.
“There was a passenger in a vehicle, a 17-year-old, who took a cell phone video of the defendant at the scene of the crash,” Glazer read aloud in court.
Rodriguez is facing charges of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon, vehicular homicide, and leaving the scene of a traffic crash resulting in death.
Prosecutors were waiting for blood test results to decide whether or not to charge a 58-year-old man with DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony with a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.