Left: Alberto Oswaldo Yanez Quintana (Broward County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office). Right: Image from the scene of a fatal crash in Pembroke Pines on Feb. 14, 2025.
A teenager in Florida is facing several charges of homicide after allegedly causing the death of a married couple by driving his new vehicle at nearly twice the speed limit.
Alberto Oswaldo Yanez Quintana, aged 17, was taken into custody on Thursday in connection with the Valentine’s Day accident that resulted in the deaths of Patricia Fajardro De Cardona and her spouse, Hugo Cardona Valencia. The crash took place around 6:30 p.m. in Pembroke Pines, approximately 25 miles from Miami, as stated in a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
Broward County court records show that Yanez Quintana is charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and five counts of reckless driving with damage to a person or property.
Investigators said that Yanez Quintana was trying to show off his new car, a 2019 Dodge Charger, to his passengers.
“The defendant left Westfork Plaza with the intention of showing his friends how fast his new car was,” the affidavit says.
The married couple was in a Ford Fusion turning left at a stop sign when Yanes Quintana allegedly drove right into them.
“The force from the impact split the silver Ford in half,” the affidavit said, adding that a victim — identified in local media reports as Cardona — was ejected from the car.
Video from a nearby Tesla “captured the crash,” the affidavit says. “The Tesla video depicts a grey Dodge Charger traveling at a high rate of speed before impacting a silver Ford Fusion.”
Despite first responders providing lifesaving measures, Cardona was pronounced dead at the scene. Valencia, Cardona’s husband, suffered a broken spine, brain bleed, multiple fractures, and also needed multiple blood transfusions, according to the affidavit. Less than 10 days after the collision, he also succumbed to his injuries and died.
Valencia was 84 years old. Cardona’s age was not immediately available.
A third victim suffered a foot injury and spinal injury, including a fracture and multiple damaged vertebrae.
Yanez Quintana, meanwhile, was treated for minor injuries after the crash, the report said.
A witness whose name was redacted from the affidavit told police that “Yanez Quintana does not know how to drive and should be ‘locked up.’”
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The posted speed limit was 45 mph, the affidavit said. Police data shows that Yanez Quintana’s speed was 85 mph in the seconds before impact.
Had he been going the speed limit, police said, the disaster would likely have been averted.
“A time-distance calculation was conducted and the results determined that if the Dodge Charger was traveling at the speed limit of 45 mph, the Ford Fusion would have had an additional 2.61 seconds to cross the intersection, and the crash would not have occurred,” the affidavit states.
Another witness told police that Yanez Quintana had been taking “heavy turns,” or accelerating during his turns, and had “rapidly accelerated” while on the road. These statements, police say, “highlight the defendant’s intent on showing off his new car and what speeds it was capable of.”
Yanez Quintana “weaved around other (slower) vehicles on the roadway while continuing to accelerate to unsafe/unreasonable speeds,” the affidavit also says. “The defendant’s actions directly resulted in the serious injury to not only his passengers but to the deaths of an unsuspecting motorist and his passenger.
