A man who removed the license plate off his car while running from the scene of a fiery wreck in Miramar that left another driver dead back in September has been arrested, police said.
Joel Roman Osceola Arroyo was arrested Friday on charges including vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a crash involving death and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, jail records showed.
The Sept. 16 crash happened around 2 a.m. in the 9400 block of Miramar Parkway and ended in the death of 26-year-old Antonio Javier Gort.
An arrest report said Osceola Arroyo, who turned 21 in December, was driving his 2016 Chevy Impala on Miramar Parkway "at a very high speed" when he slammed into the back of a 2015 Audi A8L driven by Gort. The Audi hit a tree in the median and caught fire, while the Impala traveled several hundred feet, hit a tree then sideswiped a wall and came to a stop in the middle of the road, the report said.
After the Impala came to a rest, Osceola Arroyo removed his license plate, grabbed his belongings and fled the scene on foot with a passenger, the report said. Another driver who was a witness recorded footage on his cell phone showing two people gathering belongings from the Impala with the Audi on fire nearby, the report said.
"Mr. Osceola Arroyo showed no remorse and did not make any attempt to aid Mr. Gort who was sitting in a blaze of fire inside the Audi," the report said.
Officers arrived and found another passenger who had been in the Impala and was walking around the area, trying to find Osceola Arroyo and the other passenger, the report said. The passenger said he fell asleep as they were driving to Waffle House and woke up when the crash happened, the report said.
The passenger told officers that they had been drinking and confirmed that Osceola Arroyo was driving at the time of crash, the report said.
Investigators later determined that the Impala was going 96 mph when the impact happened, the report said. The posted speed limit is 40 mph.
"Well the incident occurred last September and immediately we had an idea of who was behind the wheel. We had witnesses at the scene, we took some statements, we had information," Miramar Police spokeswoman Tania Rues said. "But obviously, you know we still needed to conduct a thorough investigation to be able to confirm these witness accounts."
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Osceola Arroyo, of Hollywood, was booked into jail, where he remained without bond Monday, records showed. His attorney declined to comment on the case.
