FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A teenager faced a Broward judge Friday, nearly three months after Pembroke Pines police said he was behind the wheel of his 2019 Dodge Charger and caused a fatal crash that injured three passengers in his car and killed a husband and wife in another vehicle.
Albert Yanez Quintana, 17, of Sunrise, was charged as an adult.
The wreck happened on Valentine‘s Day.
The victims, Hugo Cardona Valencia and his wife, Patricia, were making a turn at the intersection of Dykes Road and Northwest 12th Street when investigators said Yanez Quintana slammed into them, splitting the couple‘s vehicle in two.
They lost their lives on a day they were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.
In court, Hugo Cardona, the victims’ son, addressed the judge, asking for justice following the deaths of his parents.
“My parents were perfectly able and capable people. In fact, they lived by themselves and were the center of our family,” he said. “We have a big loss, a big emptiness here after their departure.”
Gabriel Cardona, their grandson, spoke directly to the teen.
“I got a call in the middle of the night telling me, ‘Your grandparents are dead,’” he said. “Albert, you didn’t just take two lives, you stole two people who were my whole world.
“They will never be at my wedding. They will never hold my children. Every moment, every future memory with them was stolen in that instant.”
He added, “If Albert isn’t held accountable, we all live in fear that he will do this to another family.”
The arrest report states that at the time of the crash, friends in his vehicle said he was driving recklessly, speeding through corners and weaving past vehicles, appearing to be showing off his new car.
“He did seem like a carefree type who could get into some trouble like that,” Daniel Mulligan, a classmate of Yanez Quintana’s at Pembroke Pines Charter High School, told Local 10 News on Friday. “Especially when you are in a vehicle with other people, if you have a license, that’s a responsibility.”
Police said that his inconsiderate manner of driving not only landed him behind bars but also took the lives of an innocent couple.
The judge found probable cause and ordered the teen to be held on a $350,000 bond.
If Yanez Quintana posts the six-figure bond, he will have to be fitted for a GPS ankle monitoring device and has been ordered not to drive.