{"id":133768,"date":"2026-01-27T18:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/133768\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:10:07","slug":"hialeah-gardens-woman-gets-probation-loses-license-for-killing-best-friend-in-dui-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/133768\/","title":{"rendered":"Hialeah Gardens woman gets probation, loses license for killing best friend in DUI crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 A 73-year-old Hialeah Gardens woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges in connection with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/02\/03\/hialeah-gardens-woman-charged-with-dui-manslaughter-after-crash-into-lake-kills-passenger\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/02\/03\/hialeah-gardens-woman-charged-with-dui-manslaughter-after-crash-into-lake-kills-passenger\/\">a crash on New Year\u2019s Eve 2024<\/a> that left her best friend, a passenger in her vehicle, dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Julia Vega will receive probation and will have her license permanently revoked as part of her agreement with Miami-Dade prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Investigators said Vega, then 72, drove into a lake behind her condominium complex, Vista Del Lago at 9915 W. Okeechobee Road, with 69-year-old Elsa Pintor in the passenger\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Surveillance video showed the crash and body camera video showed Vega <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/11\/18\/body-camera-video-shows-police-response-after-woman-drove-car-into-lake-killing-passenger\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/11\/18\/body-camera-video-shows-police-response-after-woman-drove-car-into-lake-killing-passenger\/\">moments after<\/a> an officer pulled her from the water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Video shows Vega attempting a field sobriety test, which police say she failed, additionally saying she slurred her speech and had bloodshot, watery eyes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Investigators say Vega admitted to drinking wine earlier that night and said a blood draw later revealed a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit, along with anti-anxiety medication in her system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Vega, under the plea agreement, will be on probation for 10 years. Additionally, she\u2019ll have to perform 200 hours of community service and will be on a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. while on probation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cShe lives with it every day,\u201d Vega\u2019s attorney, Hilton Napoleon, told Local 10 News. \u201cIt\u2019s a horrible feeling and she\u2019s very, very remorseful about what happened and that\u2019s part of the reason why we were able to articulate the plea agreement and agree upon the terms and conditions that we did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Napoleon said prosecutors agreed that putting Vega in prison \u201cwould not serve the public\u2019s best interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A 73-year-old Hialeah Gardens woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-133768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}