Custody Hearing For Kids Of Murder Suspect Struck On Palmetto
MIAMI (CBS4) - There's a custody hearing Thursday afternoon for the two children of a murder suspect who ran onto the busy Palmetto Expressway and was struck by a vehicle while trying to elude police.
Currently recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Jose Antonio Pupo Gonzalez, 37, is expected to be charged with murder by the Hialeah Police Department. Police say he strangled his wife Yoanys Martinez-Avila, 31, in front of their 4-year-old son on Wednesday, than dropped the child off with a babysitter.
The babysitter spoke to CBS4's Peter D'Oench on Thursday morning. Juana de Armas said she is "shocked and never saw the suspect harm his wife before." In addition, when the child was dropped off, de Armas said Gonzalez told her, "Tell my son I'll never forget him and I love him very much." She went on, "He hugged his child, he told him to do the right thing, he told him he loved him very much and would never forget him."
The whole series of events began to unfold inside a Hialeah apartment at 6565 W. Second Court in the Golden Eagle apartment complex. Police say after Gonzalez allegedly strangled his wife, he reportedly began calling people, including his employer, to tell them he killed his wife. When police arrived, they found her body, but Gonzalez was nowhere to be found until hours later at the Hialeah Chamber of Commerce Building at 1840 West 49th Street. People began calling about a gas odor. Turns out Gonzalez had gone into the building to use the restroom but he had spilled gasoline on his body and that triggered an immediate evacuation.
That's when detectives spotted him walking towards the Palmetto Expressway. He walked safely cross the northbound lanes but when detectives followed him, he tried to cross the southbound lanes and didn't make it. When he tried to run, a mini-van slammed into him. Moments later, he was back on his feet fighting with police.
"I can't understand it, I have been doing this 27-years and it's still, you know, still shocks me," said Hialeah Police Chief Mark Overton.
Pupo Gonzalez was taken by Hialeah Fire Rescue to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition.
"The end result is that justice prevails and the subject is in custody," said Chief Overton.
The 4-year-old and a 13-year-old child are now in the care of the Department of Children and Families.
