Nineteen years after a woman was fatally struck in Hialeah, the suspect accused of killing her and fleeing the state was arrested on Saturday, jail records showed.
Leydis Menendez Abdala, 52, was charged with vehicular homicide/reckless manner and DUI manslaughter, Miami-Dade jail records show.
Miami-Dade Corrections
Miami-Dade Corrections
Leydis Menendez Abdala
According to Hialeah Police, the victim, Gloria Marcia Hall, left her home at around 4 a.m. on Aug. 12, 2006, and stopped at a light on 68th Street.
As she made her way down the road, she was struck by a vehicle that ran a red light.
Hall’s brother, Miami Police Commander Joaquin Freire, said during an interview that his sister died at the scene after being hit, while Abdala was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
“I get a knock on the door, it’s two police officers from another jurisdiction and they’re like, ‘do you know a Gloria Hall? I said ‘yes, that’s my sister, why? She was involved in an accident.’ They’re like, ‘she didn’t make it,'” Freire said. “The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do is sit my mom down and my dad and then her daughters, my nieces, and tell them ‘your mom died this morning.'”
Freire said Abdala signed a statement acknowledging that she was impaired while she was driving.
Miami Police Department
Miami Police Department
Gloria Hall
On Sept. 10, 2006, Abdala fled Florida and was living in Mexico, officials said. She was brought back by U.S. Marshals on Friday.
During her court appearance, a prosecutor said that when Abdala was taken to the hospital, a sample of her blood was taken, and Hialeah Police had a warrant for her blood sample so that it could be analyzed at the toxicology laboratory.
The prosecutor claims that Abdala, at the time, was in a relationship with someone in the Hialeah Police Department, and that person told her that her blood was going to be analyzed, and then she fled the country.
“By the time the Hialeah traffic homicide unit got the toxicology results this defendant’s boyfriend had given her the heads up and she fled the country,” prosecutor Laura Adams said.
Freire was also in court during Abdala’s hearing and asked the judge to hold her without bond.
The judge granted the state’s request to move the hearing to Monday, so they can file a motion for pre-trial detention.
Adbala remains in custody and will appear in court again on Monday.