JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man charged in the hit-and-run death of a scooter rider early Monday morning was forced to reschedule his first appearance Tuesday afternoon because a translator never showed up.
Santos Herrera-Montiel, who's charged with leaving the scene of a crash resulting in the death of 37-year-old Michael Moon (pictured below), is now scheduled for first appearance at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Herrera-Montiel has a hold on him by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, typically an indication that his immigration status is undocumented. He remained in the Duval County jail Tuesday, and the jail website showed an additional charge for driving without a license.
"Typically when you see an individual who gets arrested that is not here legally, then immigration is going to put a hold on them. We will see an immediate hold, which means that immigration is saying, 'As soon as Duval County is finished with him, we now want him. And we want to address this,'" said attorney Gene Nichols. "Jacksonville has a very large population of folks who are not legal, and we do see folks coming through the courthouse all the time especially on driving offenses."
Herrera-Montiel doesn't speak English, which is what caused the delay in his legal proceedings. The 33-year-old turned himself in Monday afternoon at a Westside gas station.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Moon's scooter was rear-ended by Herrera-Montiel's vehicle while traveling westbound on Normandy Boulevard near Stratton Road.
Nichols said he's confident that if Herrera-Montiel is convicted, the State Attorney's Office will push for the maximum penalty, and he wouldn't be in the U.S. much longer.
"You can fully expect if he is convicted of this charge that he will most likely face deportation out of the United States, because immigration typically does not let people go if they have been charged and convicted of such serious crimes," Nichols said.
Moon's family members said he was driving the scooter home from one of his two jobs working as a restaurant server.
"About 3:30 in the morning, two FHP (troopers) came to the door," said Sean Baccus, Moon's nephew. "Got that knock and it was just -- you felt it in your stomach when you saw the two FHP officers that something was wrong."
Baccus said their family is all really close, and he lived with his uncle on the Westside. He said the death has hit them hard.
"We all just kind of all just collapsed on the floor," Baccus said. "It was like a pain in your stomach. Just all collapsed to the floor.
"Even now it hasn't really sunk in. I keep expecting him to walk in saying, 'I'm right here, it was a joke.' We can't do much now, but wait for the justice system to give us justice in this case."
Investigators said they found a helmet at the scene but aren't sure whether Moon was wearing it.
The family is also struggling to figure out how to pay for funeral expenses because they said Moon did not have insurance. His niece, Geraldine Moon-Kreitzman, said she's a truck driver and is rushing back to Florida now to help the family through this difficult time.
"It's hard because me and my brother are scrambling right now to try and find a way to put him to rest," she said.
Moon-Kreitzman said she was shocked after hearing what happened.
"He's very safety conscientious," she said. "I'm not even sure. I still can't believe the whole helmet thing. He wouldn't even go up the street to the Jiffy store without a helmet on his head."
Nichols said the family could pursue a wrongful death suit in civil court, but it likely wouldn't do much good.
"Based on the limited information that we know, since he was not here legally, he probably did not have any insurance. And if he does not have any insurance, we can presume that he does not have any assets," Nichols said. "So the family, even in a wrongful death claim, may be able to get a judgment for what could be millions of dollars, and it would be worth the paper that it was written on and that's absolutely nothing."
A GoFundMe account has been created to help the family pay for funeral expenses. To donate, go to http://Gofundme.com/michaelmoonfuneral.