Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Prosecutors: Woman who killed gym member has violent history
Prosecutors on Wednesday portrayed a woman who is accused of killing a fellow gym member as a lying lush with a history of growing violent when she has too many drinks.
Yvonne Serrano has attacked all four of her children and even her mother when drinking, Assistant State Attorney Lanie Bandell told a judge Wednesday morning during a bond hearing.
Bandell told Judge Barbara Duffy that Serrano’s husband of 26 years provided the state with sworn testimony Monday about Serrano’s drinking.
Doug Serrano said one drink had no impact on his wife and the second drink made her lighthearted. By drink No. 4, though, she grew angry, and by the fifth drink, there usually were episodes of physical assault, he said. Doug Serrano told the Broward State Attorney’s Office that he only witnessed one attack against one of their daughters.
Bandell said Doug Serrano said his wife got so drunk that blackouts were frequent. Doug Serrano filed for divorce in late December, a month after his wife’s arrest.
Serrano claims to have no memory what happened to Daniela Tabares. Police say Serrano shot her in the forehead after Tabares drove a drunken Serrano home from a bar in late November.
The judge on Wednesday postponed deciding whether Serrano, 51, of Coral Springs, should be freed from jail until she has a better understanding about where she would stay, how many weapons she’d have access to as well as how much money she would have. Another hearing on the matter is expected next week.
Serrano has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the death of 21-year-old Tabares after an outing with a gym group to the movies and to a bar. At a court hearing Wednesday morning, Serrano’s attorneys asked that she be released from jail with numerous conditions, such as house arrest and that she be required to wear a device that can detect if Serrano has drank any alcoholic beverage.
Prosecutors tried to prove Serrano is a threat to society, while Serrano’s attorneys pointed out that up until this point, Serrano has never had any run-ins with the police and had a spotless criminal record.
Tabares’ friends and family vehemently oppose Serrano’s release from jail while she awaits trial. Last week about 50 people staged a protest in Coral Springs, holding banners and calling for Serrano to stay in jail.
More than 40 people crammed into the small courtroom Wednesday to oppose Serrano’s attempt to receive bail. There were so many people, many others were turned away and remained outside the courtroom during the 90-minute hearing.
Serrano looked uncomfortable during the hearing and mostly avoided looking at the rows of spectators in the courtroom, including her own mother.
Police say Tabares was killed after stepping in and volunteering to drive a drunken Serrano home from a bar, World of Beer, in the early morning of Nov. 23.
Serrano, Tabares and about eight others from the Coral Springs gym Training for Warriors went to a movie and out for drinks the night before. The tight-knit gym does monthly outings.
According to police, Serrano called 911 at 6 a.m. and said she was on her way to the gym when she came across Tabares’ body.
Tabares’ body was in Serrano’s driveway. Her right foot still was inside her Nissan Kicks, and a 9 mm shell casing was in the front passenger seat. Tabares was shot in the forehead.
Serrano later gave a different account, saying she woke up in Tabares’ car without any recollection of leaving the bar, police said.
Serrano at the police station gave yet another account and admitted to washing the white lace tank top that she had been wearing the night before and erasing all footage captured on her Ring doorbell app. She told police she owned three guns and she carried her 9 mm pistol out with her the night before. Earlier in the interrogation, she denied bringing a weapon out with her, police said.
Bandell, the assistant state attorney, said there were more weapons at the house and a storage unit including an AR-15, a shotgun, massive amount of ammunition and body armor. Serrano’s attorneys said the other weapons belong to other family members.
Duffy said she wants sworn testimony from Serrano about the weapons as well as her family’s assets after Bandell suggested that Seranno’s parents were wealthy.
The case has shocked an allegiance of Tabares’ gym friends and family. Last week, acquaintances told the South Florida Sun Suntinel that Serrano was a loner with an intense personality. They said she had been sitting alone outside World of Beer and wanted Tabares to sit with her and Tabares did not want to.
Surveillance footage from within World of Beer on the night of the gym outing shows Serrano passing out shots of booze and downing three of them. She also had three beers, said Bandell.
Jonathan Friedman, one of Serrano’s lawyers, told the judge there was no disputing the facts.
“The bottom line judge, is we have a client who doesn’t remember,” Friedman said.
Friedman said there are so many unknowns about what happened inside Tabares’ car before she got killed:
■ “Could it have been an accident?”
■ “Could it have been selfdefense?”
Friedman added, “We know an act happened. We just don’t know how it happened.”
Because Serrano was arrested on a murder charge, she has been held without bail, which is customary under Florida law. However, weeks after her arrest, the Broward State Attorney’s Office downgraded Serrano’s charge to manslaughter. Now, facing the lesser charge, she’s seeking to be freed from jail.