{"id":364654,"date":"2026-08-06T21:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T21:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364654\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T21:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T21:00:23","slug":"family-of-woman-killed-during-2022-crime-spree-crash-testifies-as-teen-faces-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364654\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of woman killed during 2022 crime spree crash testifies as teen faces sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Four years after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2022\/08\/30\/teenage-boys-face-charges-after-crime-spree-in-fort-lauderdale\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2022\/08\/30\/teenage-boys-face-charges-after-crime-spree-in-fort-lauderdale\/\">single mother of three was killed in a crash<\/a>, the teen who was behind the wheel of the car that hit her is now being sentenced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Now 19, Jah\u2019Kobe Bessent awaits his fate for a crime spree in August 2022 that ended in the fatal crash. Investigators said Bessent, then 15, was driving a stolen vehicle and fleeing from police when he caused the wreck that killed 35-year-old Maria Tellez-Valderrabano.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">State prosecutors said Bessent and 13-year-old Jacory Flournoy first broke into a Fort Lauderdale home while the residents were sleeping, stole their car and later crashed into another vehicle, killing Tellez-Valderrabano.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Tellez-Valderrabano\u2019s family was in court Thursday wearing pendants with her picture on them as several of Bessent\u2019s relatives testified in his defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI saw it on the news. I had a feeling that he was involved in it,\u201d one family member said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">During the sentencing hearing, Bessent\u2019s aunt, Latonya Burns, described what she said was a difficult and traumatic upbringing that severely affected his mental state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Bessent\u2019s sister, who is also behind bars, testified that she and her brother were physically abused. She said there were times when their mother ordered her to hold Jah\u2019Kobe down while he was beaten.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">State prosecutors argued that the disturbing details of Bessent\u2019s upbringing should not take away from the fact that a woman was killed and a family lost their loved one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The victim\u2019s family said they want justice for Tellez-Valderrabano\u2019s death, but the judge will ultimately decide Bessent\u2019s sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">At the time of this report, Bessent\u2019s father was on the witness stand.<\/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":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 Four years after a single mother of three was killed in a crash, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-364654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364654","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=364654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}