MIAMI – A 25-year-old Georgia man was sentenced Monday to spend nearly two decades in a Florida state prison after entering a guilty plea in connection with a deadly 2023 crash on the 79th Street Causeway in Miami.
Alejandro Hall, then 24, was driving a rented Lamborghini Urus at a “very high rate of speed” west on the causeway on Sept. 4, 2023 when he veered to the left to avoid rear-ending a Hyundai Elantra, which caused him to lose control and slam into the driver’s side of the sedan.
Authorities said the Hyundai driver, 38-year-old Juan Andres Da Costa, was ejected from the car and struck a streetlight pole. He later died from his injuries.
An arrest report stated that Hall, of Alpharetta, Georgia, had slurred speech and smelled of alcohol, along with two open bottles of alcohol were spotted in the back seat.
Police body camera footage played in court Monday showed Hall trying to run away from the scene, a move his attorney said was an attempt to take his own life after the crash, in which prosecutors said Hall was driving at 130 mph.
“He has worked diligently to rehabilitate himself,” his attorney said.
Hall pleaded guilty to reckless vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter and driving while license suspended causing death and received an 18-year prison sentence Monday.
“I’m truly sorry for all the pain and suffering that I caused,” Hall said in court Monday. “I didn’t mean for it to happen that night.”
Once released, Hall will spend two years on community control — including six months of GPS monitoring — and five years on probation.
Families of both Hall and the victim were in the Miami-Dade courtroom for Monday’s sentencing hearing.
“I just want to make sure no other family has to suffer what we have suffered because of (Hall),” Da Costa’s brother said in court.
In addition to prison and probation, Hall must also complete alcohol abuse training and community service and donate money to the state victims’ assistance fund every year on the anniversary of the crash.