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New York Post
Illegal immigrant accused of killing three in drunken crash deported before trial
By Katherine Donlevy,
2 days ago
An illegal immigrant accused of killing three Floridians in a drunken car crash was deported this month, leaving families of his alleged victims reeling that he didn’t face justice.
Erwin Rommel Recinos Zuniga, 28, had been on house arrest for the 2022 crash in West Flagler that killed Paola Sabillon, her boyfriend Jason Meza and his cousin Giselle Reyes before he was sent back to Honduras Sept. 6.
“He gets deported. He’s living. He’s sleeping. He is seeing his family. My sister stopped growing at 19 years old,” Miriam Castillo, Paola Sabillon’s sister, told NBC Miami.
“I have lost the little bit of faith in the justice system,” her sister Jailene Najera added.
Erwin Rommel Recinos Zuniga was deported earlier this month before standing trial on charges he killed three people in a drunken car cash. NBC Miamni
Records show Zuniga “violated the rules and regulations of the Monitored Release Bureau – House Arrest Program” before he was arrested on immigration charges, the station reported.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to The Post that “Zuniga was an unlawfully present Honduran national who was removed Sept 6.”
At the time of his deportation, he was facing a slew of charges for the 2022 crash, including three counts of DUI manslaughter and three counts of reckless vehicular homicide.
Paola Sabillon, along with boyfriend Jason Meza and his cousin Giselle Reyes, were killed in the 2022 crash. NBC Miamni Zuniga was allegedly driving 126 mph, had a blood alcohol level of 0.123 and THC in his system, police said. NBC Miamni
Prosecutors said he was driving 126 mph in a 40 mph zone when he lost control of the car and crashed into a gas station sign.
Zuniga had a blood alcohol level of 0.123 and had THC in his system, police said.
Witnesses said they watched Zuniga take five or six shots of whiskey before getting behind the wheel to drive four others to a nearby club. Sabillon, Meza and Reyes were killed, and a fourth passenger was critically injured.
Zuniga was under house arrest before he was deported to Honduras. NBC Miamni
Prosecutors claim both they and the victims’ grieving families were not made aware of Zuniga’s deportation until after he was already gone.
“This deportation, which robbed the victims’ families of justice, could have been avoided had those overseeing his community supervised release simply notified the court and the state attorney’s office of their intention to release him,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told NBC6. “No such notification occurred.”
“The families of the young victims and the people of Miami-Dade County understandably feel cheated by this type of governmental failure.”
It is unclear what the next steps will be, but Rundle’s office said it will work with federal authorities to bring Zuniga back to Miami to stand trial.
Neither the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office nor the Miami-Dade Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the agency that oversees the house arrest programs, responded to request for comment.
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