The accused gunman in a 2019 shooting in a Miami-Dade parking lot that killed a 17-year-old girl fled to Mexico with an alleged accomplice after the killing, his ex-girlfriend told detectives in newly-released court records.
The arrest warrant obtained Wednesday sheds light on the investigation into the May 24, 2019, killing of Gabriela Aldana and arrest this week of the suspected gunman and two alleged accomplices.
The alleged gunman, Yondeivis Wongden-Hernandez, 26, appeared in court Wednesday where he was ordered held without bond on second-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder charges in the shooting.
Aldana was standing in the parking lot of a strip mall on Coral Way and 118th Avenue with several friends when a car stopped and a man got out and opened fire into the crowd before fleeing, the arrest warrant said.
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The teen was shot in the head and rushed to Kendall Regional Medical Center where she underwent surgery but died from her injuries.
According to the warrant, a 24-year-old man who was with Aldana had been friends with Wongden-Hernandez but they had a falling out, and had been involved in an ongoing dispute "over relationships with the same women."
Wongden-Hernandez had seen a social media post from Aldana that showed her at the parking lot with the other man and drove to the strip mall, where he tried to shoot the other man but instead hit Aldana, the warrant said.
After the shooting, Wongden-Hernandez drove to Mexico with Randy Rodriguez-Fernandez, 21, the warrant said.
Investigators contacted Wongden-Hernandez’s ex-girlfriend, who told them of the escape to Mexico, the warrant said.
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"[The ex-girlfriend] boarded a Greyhound bus and went to Mexico to meet with them. She explained that she brought [Wongden-Hernandez] and Randy Rodriguez-Fernandez clothing and money to sustain themselves," the warrant said. "She advised that she flew back to Miami once her father found out that [Wongden-Hernandez] was involved in the homicide."
The warrant said surveillance footage from the parking lot and Sunpass photos of the car the suspect was in from shortly after the homicide helped detectives identify him.
Rodriguez-Fernandez and another man, 29-year-old Carlos Paterson-Torres, were arrested and charged as accessory after the fact, records showed.
"We would like to take this moment to thank the Miami-Dade Police Department for a job well done. We are very grateful to the investigators, for working tirelessly and never giving up on our daughter’s case," the Aldana family said in a statement Wednesday. "We thank the community for always giving us support with words of encouragement and prayers. We will allow the justice system to take its course and we hope these individuals receive the maximum weight of the law."
