Sentencing Day For FIU Student Who Pleaded Guilty To Running Over HSI Agents
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Jordana Rosales sat silently in a packed Miami-Dade courtroom Wednesday.
There were emotional moments as she listened to an audio tape recording of her accident that took the life of 41-year-old Homeland Security Investigations Agent Scott McGuire.
Surveillance tape captured the 23-year-old's Mercedes Benz driving erratically at the time of the January 2016 accident. Her car made a U-turn and veered onto a South Beach sidewalk, hitting McGuire and his partner.
ROSALES: "I don't know what happened. It was so fast. I know I hit something."
DETECTIVE: "What did you hit?"
ROSALES: "It was a person… I thought I did that... I freaked out… I didn't know what to do. I left."
Rosales was charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident involving a death and reckless driving. Rosales pleaded guilty to those charges back in October.
She was initially charged with DUI manslaughter but those charges were dropped. She was never tested because she fled the scene.
DETECTIVE: "Why didn't you call 911?"
ROSALES: "I had never been in trouble before. I didn't know what to do."
She was asked why she initially claimed her car windshield was damaged by a tree that fell on it.
Witness Madison Haynes testified that Rosales and her friends had six alcoholic drinks in six hours at three different clubs.
McGuire's partner, who works undercover so his face wasn't shown, testified he will never recover from the accident that left him with broken bones, damaged eyesight and recurring headaches.
There was testimony that Rosales was very concerned about what trouble she was in but did not have concern for the two men she hit with her car.
Family members are expected to testify as well.
The judge has a lot of leeway in what the sentence can be.
