MIAMI – Sixteen-year-old Maykoll Santiesteban may not leave prison until well into his senior years after pleading guilty Friday to killing three women in a crash during an April 2024 joyride in Hialeah.
Police said Santiesteban, then 15, was driving nearly 55 mph over the speed limit in his father’s car when he slammed into a parked vehicle in the 400 block of Southeast Fifth Street on April 23.
Yarnia Garcia Hernandez, 39, and her aunt, Gloria Hernandez, 53, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Hernandez’s 66-year-old mother, Liliana Hernandez Molina, died from her injuries in September.
Santiesteban pleaded guilty Friday in Miami-Dade court to three counts each of vehicular homicide and driving without a license causing death. His family and parents were in the courtroom.
“We can’t celebrate birthdays,” a family member of one of the victims said outside of the courtroom Friday. “We can’t say merry Christmas, like always.”
The teenager, charged as an adult, entered the plea without knowing his sentence. He faces between 28 and 65 years in prison.
“The state wants to treat him as an adult,” Santiesteban’s attorney, Scott Kotler, said. “His exposure is large, so the decision was made to plead up to the court.”
Kotler said the change in plea now shifts the focus from fighting at trial to asking for mercy from the judge and from the family.
“I’m asking for a youthful offender sentence,” Kotler said. “He qualifies because of his age. This crime qualifies.”
The state and Santiesteban’s defense team will make presentations and recommendations during a March 26 sentencing hearing.