{"id":305302,"date":"2026-06-12T15:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/305302\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:34:09","slug":"driver-had-suspended-license-when-he-killed-cyclist-in-hialeah-hit-and-run-cops-say-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/305302\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver had suspended license when he killed cyclist in Hialeah hit-and-run, cops say \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man accused of driving with a suspended license when he allegedly struck and killed a cyclist and fled the scene<\/a> made his first appearance before a judge on Friday.<\/p>\n

Leonel Lejandro Laferte, 21, was arrested on charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving death and driving with a suspended license in the crash early Thursday that killed 37-year-old Kenneth Wimbley Jr.<\/p>\n

During Laferte’s court appearance Friday, a prosecutor asked that his bond be set at $50,000 with house arrest, while his defense attorney asked for a standard $15,000 bond, noting that he’s lived in South Florida for his entire life.<\/p>\n

“Made my whole life here, had a horrible day today,” Laferte said.<\/p>\n

“Sir, you were driving at 4 o’clock in the morning without a license, ended up killing somebody, didn’t render aid, that’s the allegations, they’re very serious allegations,” Judge David H. Young responded.<\/p>\n

Young said he was going to raise the bond to $100,000, but said the $50,000 was reasonable. Laferte wept as Young set the bond and ordered him on level 2 house arrest, meaning he’ll be allowed to go to work.<\/p>\n

The crash happened at the intersection of Southeast 4th Avenue and East Okeechobee Road.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Kenneth<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFamily PhotosFamily Photos<\/p>\n

Kenneth Wimbley Jr.<\/p>\n

Family members said Wimbley was going to work when he was struck and killed.<\/p>\n

The driver fled the scene but later Thursday, Laferte arrived at the Hialeah Police Department asking to speak with traffic homicide detectives and telling them he’d been involved in a traffic crash earlier in the morning and failed to stop, police said.<\/p>\n

He was arrested and booked into jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused of driving with a suspended license when he allegedly struck and killed a cyclist and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-305302","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\/305302","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=305302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}