MIAMI (WSVN) - A South Florida teen accused of causing a killer crash went before a judge to answer for his charges.
7News cameras captured Maykoll Santiesteban and his attorney, Scott Kotler, stood before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Christine Hernandez, Friday morning. He faces three counts of vehicular homicide.
“You’re facing a minimum of 28 years in state prison to 65 years in state prison,” said Hernandez.
The 16-year-old, who is being charged as an adult in the April 2024 crash, changed his plea from not guilty to guilty.
“Our goal is to accept responsibility for his actions of speeding excessively in a residential zone, which led to three deaths,” said Kotler.
Santiesteban was 15 when, police said, he took the keys to his father’s Nissan SUV and went for a joyride.
Surveillance video shows the white SUV speeding through a Hialeah neighborhood, then slamming into a Toyota Corolla at the intersection of Southeast Fifth Avenue and Fourth Street.
Investigators said they determined Santiesteban reached 83 miles per hour two seconds before the impact.
The high-speed crash killed 39-year-old Yarnia Garcia Hernandez and her aunt, 71-year-old Gloria Hernandez. Garcia Hernandez’s mother, 66-year-old Lilianna Hernandez, succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.
Their family members attended Friday’s hearing.
“Nobody can fill that void. What else can I say? There should be justice,” said a family member Bob Garcia in Spanish.
“When someone plays with the lives of others, everything has to have consequences,” said family member Osmeide Rodriguez Hernandez.
Soom Santiesteban will learn the consequences of his actions.
“I therefore accept your plea of guilty. I find you guilty,” said Hernandez.
The teen’s attorneys hope the judge will opt for a youthful offender sentence instead of decades in prison.
“He’s a kid, he’s 15 years old. He was in eighth grade,” said Kotler. “It’s a horrible thing, Everybody loses. The next of kin of these three women have lost, his family have lost. Nobody wins in this situation.”
Sentencing in this case has been set for March 26.
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