MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Three markers stand at a gas station in Miami with a warning: “Drive Safely” in memory of Paola Sabillon, Jason Meza, and Giselle Reyes. For their families, these are a reminder of justice not served.
A day before 2022 Valentine’s Day, Sabillon, 19, was with Meza, her boyfriend. An impaired driver lost control and struck them at a Valero gas station along West Flagler Street at Southwest 48 Avenue.
“We are going to have five unconscious people,” a Miami police officer who responded told dispatch, according to the body cam video recently released to Local 10 News.
Detectives identified the driver responsible as Erwin Rommel Recinos Zúñiga. Prosecutors say he has yet to face trial because corrections released him and federal immigration authorities deported him.
The couple and Reyes, Meza’s cousin, died. Miami-Dade County Deputy Chief Assistant State Attorney Christine E. Zahralban described the Feb. 13, 2022 crime scene video in court as “bone-chilling.”
Zahralban told Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Laura Cruz in court on Thursday that county corrections had granted Recinos Zúñiga, 28, a “get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Miami police officers arrested Recinos Zúñiga on March 24, 2022. He is also known as Erwin Zuniga and on the Miami-Dade court record as Erwin Recinoszuniga.
Zahralban presented an affidavit to the court signed by a Miami-Dade corrections officer on July 18 releasing Recinoszuniga from house arrest. Zahralban said corrections did not properly notify prosecutors.
“We need some answers,” Zahralban said during the hearing.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Recinoszuniga was deported to Honduras on Sept. 6 after a federal judge signed a final order.
“Even on September 12th, it’s still showing him in our custody,” Zahralban said.
Recinoszuniga is facing eight felonies and two misdemeanors. The eight felonies: Three counts of DUI manslaughter, three counts of vehicular homicide, one count of DUI with serious injury, and one count of reckless driving with serious injury. The misdemeanors are two counts of DUI damage to property.
Zahralban said Recinoszuniga is not the only defendant corrections has released to ICE while awaiting trial. Corrections, she said, released Cesar Julian Gonzalez Alvarado, a defendant in a child sex crimes case.
“Someone tipped me off and I had him brought back from Louisiana right as he was getting on the flight,” Zahralban said in court about Gonzalez’s near-deportation.
Records show the court set a status hearing in Recinoszuniga’s case for 9:30 a.m., Nov. 19. Local 10 News has a pending inquiry with the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.