Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Driver who killed boy, 6, gets 14 years
FORT LAUDERDALE — Six-year-old Santiago Mondragon was in the back seat of his mother’s car when a speeding, impaired driver crashed into them, splitting their car in half and killing the child.
Thursday, Broward County Judge Tim Bailey sentenced Jordan Loyd Fuss, 22, of Davie, to 14 years and six months in state prison.
Fuss, who was 19 at the time of the crash, was convicted of DUI manslaughter and DUI with serious bodily injury.
Fuss knew he was going to prison that afternoon. In response to questions from his lawyer Patrick Curry, he testified that he was guilty of the crimes and said that
at times, he has wanted to end his life.
“Nineteen-year-old kids make big mistakes that they’re going to have to live with for the rest of their lives,” Curry said while asking the judge for “justice, not just retribution.”
Fuss, who works for a family business, cried often during the three-hour hearing in a courtroom filled with a dozen tearful relatives and friends from each family.
“I’m so sorry, I wish it was me,” Fuss told Santiago’s family. “He didn’t deserve it. I did. I would give my life if it meant bringing him back. I’m truly sorry.”
As midnight approached on Oct. 3, 2014, Fuss’s Infiniti sedan was traveling between 92 and 108 mph in a 45 mph zone at Stirling and Davie roads. His blood alcohol level was .21, nearly three times the legal limit of .08, according to a police report.
Fuss had spent 30 to 60 minutes before the crash playing a drinking game with playing cards, called Ring of Fire, while consuming Captain Morgan Black Spiced rum.
Fuss drove with a friend to another friend’s house. He testified that he didn’t recall speeding, which was captured by red light cameras and reported in witness statements to police.
He also said he didn’t remember the crash. Prosecutor Patricia Abdi said he sat on a curb, didn’t call 911 or check on his passenger, whose femur was broken, or on the victims.
“He made a choice to drink that night, to get behind the wheel, went through the intersection and killed this little boy,” Abdi said.
Fuss and his relatives apologized to Santiago’s parents, Nancy Giraldo and Gustavo Mondragon, who both testified through an interpreter about the depths of their grief.
“He has to pay for what he’s done, and this may serve as an example to the young men drinking in the streets, as he was,” Mondragon said while asking the judge for the maximum sentence. “You didn’t just take my son’s life, you took mine, too. I’m the walking dead, young man. May God forgive you, because I can’t.”
Giraldo said she thanked God for having given “Santi” to her for “six marvelous years,” and described how she would wake him for school with little kisses.
Now, she said, “we go to the cemetery.”
Fuss covered his face when a portrait of the brown-eyed boy with a sweet smile was put on an easel.
Curry and Fuss’ parents and friends called him “extremely remorseful,” “redeemable,” and said he has struggled with depression, had himself Baker Acted and has had suicidal thoughts.
Abdi pointed to seven of Fuss’ Facebook posts from age 14 that described drinking, being hung over and smoking marijuana, and she said that he had a drink last Christmas.
Prosecutor Michael Horowitz told the court that while Fuss was out on bond and his criminal case was pending, Fuss reported using marijuana in October 2016.
When handing down his sentence, Bailey said: “There could be no better example of how he got the message and how it changed him forever if he stopped abusing alcohol after that incident.”
But Fuss told a pre-sentencing investigator that he had drunk heavily for a year after the accident, Bailey said.
“The court finds the evidence does not support a [reduced sentence],” the judge said.
“There was a lot of talk from the young man’s family, from Jordan’s family, about his psychological makeup, talk of suicide and depression and how they believe he is redeemable,” Bailey said. “The purpose of prison is to punish. That sounds cold, that sounds mean, it’s in the Florida statute. I’m not sending the young man to prison to rehabilitate him.”
He said he was not indifferent to the family’s worries about Fuss’ mental health.
“If it was my obligation to address that issue I would not be sending him to prison,” Bailey said.
In addition to the 14-year, six-month prison sentence followed by five years’ probation, Bailey ordered permanent revocation of Fuss’ driver’s license, restitution to the victims and 100 hours of community service.
“I wish you the best of luck, Mr. Fuss,” Bailey said.
As a bailiff put Fuss in handcuffs, he waved to his family and called to his girlfriend, “I love you, baby!”
Curry asked that Fuss be declared indigent for appeal of his sentence, which Bailey granted.
Davie Police Sgt. Mark Leone was among seven Davie officers and traffic homicide investigators who filled the back row in the courtroom to witness the judge’s ruling.
“Both families are destroyed by the actions of this one individual,” Leone said.