He was mistakenly freed early. Now, Miami man who killed 4 tourists in crash returns to prison
After killing four tourists in a high-speed wreck on Interstate 95 in North Miami-Dade in 2013, Willie Dumel caught break after break.
He pleaded guilty, but served only about half of a 10-year sentence because of a prosecutor’s blunder. Then, he got jailed on a domestic-violence charge. The case fizzled. He got put back on probation.
Dumel is now out of second chances. A Miami-Dade judge this week sent him back to prison after Dumel repeatedly blew off supervision, refusing to report to his probation officer.
In all, the 34-year-old Dumel will have to serve about two-and-a-half more years in Florida state prison. When he’s finally out, he will have served about 10 years behind bars — basically, his original sentence for the horrific car wreck.
“The judge felt he needed to give him punishment — not hammer him — but at least bring to his attention the seriousness of his conduct,” said Dumel’s attorney, Larry Handfield.
The original crash was huge news in South Florida and across the nation. It happened on April 3, 2013.
Opa-locka Police Cpl. Sergio Perez spotted Dumel making an apparent illegal right turn at Northwest 143rd Street and 22nd Avenue. The officer tried to pull him over, but Dumel sped off. The high-speed pursuit ended when Dumel drove his rental car the wrong way on the exit ramp onto Interstate 95 at Ives Dairy Road.
Dumel plowed into an SUV driving south. The vehicle exploded into flames. Killed were Lily-Marie Azarcon, 26, who worked for a Philippines-based real estate developer; her colleague Dennis Ryan Riñon Ortiz, 33; U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Albertson Anthony Almase, 31; and his sister, Kristina Angela Almase, 26, a nurse. All were visiting from California.
For his chase, Perez was fired. He got his job back, then rose to become an Opa-locka captain. He was arrested in January, accused of shooting a co-worker with a Taser stun gun.
Dumel later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and accepted a 10-year prison term. But Dumel walked out of prison in 2017 after serving less than half the sentence. The reason: A Miami-Dade assistant state attorney used a single legal term in a written plea agreement that mistakenly chopped the sentence in half.
The error was then repeated on a court sentencing order, which was sent to the Florida prison system. Prosecutors and the victims’ relatives did not realize he had been freed early until the Miami Herald noticed Dumel had been freed.
In 2019, Dumel — who was on probation for the crash case — was arrested for allegedly choking his girlfriend in Broward County. But the woman refused to press charges. On Dec. 17, 2019, lawyers and Circuit Judge Alberto Milian agreed to put Dumel back on probation, extending his period of supervision by five years.
But that very same day, Dumel was supposed to report to his probation officer. He never did. Dumel blew off reporting all together. He remained a fugitive until March 2020, when he was found in a car that was pulled over in North Miami. He’d been jailed ever since.
On Thursday, Judge Milian sentenced him to 10 years in prison for blowing off his probation. With credit for time he’s already served behind bars, he’ll have to serve about two-and-a-half more years.
