A former Broward County youth pastor turned himself in over the weekend to face charges in connection with a crash earlier this year that killed his 8-year-old daughter.
Joel Leiniz, 38, of Margate, faces one count of vehicular homicide and one count of DUI manslaughter in the single-car crash in the 2600 block of South Military Trail in Boca Raton, according to a probable cause affidavit. He has pleaded not guilty.
Shortly before 10 p.m. Jan. 17, Leiniz was driving a 2017 Audi Q7 with his three young daughters in the back seat, heading to a restaurant from a church concert, the affidavit said. Leiniz told investigators that as he tried to change lanes, another car suddenly pulled in front of him and he abruptly swerved right.
The Audi then struck a concrete curb, left the road and crashed into a concrete pole. It came to a stop partly on the sidewalk. The Audi’s black box showed the car was traveling at 104 miles per hour seconds before the crash, according to the affidavit.
The impact caused significant damage to the front of the Audi and the engine compartment to catch fire, burning the windshield and the top of the dashboard, the affidavit said. The front bumper had been torn off and pushed downward and there was “significant collision intrusion” into the engine compartment, the affidavit said.
Leiniz and the girls, who were ages 5, 8 and 11 at the time, were taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, the affidavit said. Zoë Alaya Leiniz, 8, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Hours after the crash, hospital staff notified Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies that Leiniz’s blood alcohol content was .08% at the time he was admitted, which is the legal limit in Florida, according to the affidavit. A Sheriff’s Office investigator through “a retrograde analysis” determined Leiniz’s blood alcohol content would have been .097% at the time of the crash.
A detective called Leiniz about his arrest warrant while he was recently visiting family in North Carolina with his daughters, his defense attorney Anthony Genova told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Leiniz coordinated turning himself in on Sunday evening when he returned.
Genova in a recent motion to reduce Leiniz’s bond said the data from the Audi’s black box and the blood draw results are questionable.
The attorney wrote that physical evidence from the crash scene “heavily contradicts” that the car could have been traveling at more than 100 mph when it crashed into the large concrete pole given the pole had not been broken.
Genova also argued that the .08% blood draw came from a medical blood draw, which “does not carry an automatic legal presumption of impairment” under Florida law. Medical blood draws do not evaluate whole blood, and the process involves swabbing the arm with alcohol, “both of which artificially inflate the BAC reading,” Genova wrote.
“The true whole-blood BAC was likely significantly lower,” the attorney said in the motion. “Our experts will be able to flesh this out.”
Leiniz resigned from his position as youth pastor and student ministry director at New Covenant Church in Pompano Beach after the crash to focus on his daughters. Their mother and his wife died from breast cancer a year before the crash, his defense attorney wrote.
“He is an unemployed, widowed, single father who is grieving the recent tragic death of his wife to cancer and his eight-year-old daughter, Zoe, in this accident,” the motion said.
Leiniz’s first appearance was held Monday. His total bond has been set at $150,000, court records show. Genova said he expected Leiniz to be released from the jail overnight.