Miami-Dade deputy charged in killing of UPS driver claims Stand Your Ground

MIAMI — A Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputy readying for trial next week in the killing of two innocent men, including a UPS driver, during a wild shootout at a busy Broward County intersection six years ago made a last-ditch effort to have his case tossed on Friday.

Suspended deputy Jose Mateo, 33, who pleaded not guilty to manslaughter along with three other officers last year in the shooting death of the UPS truck driver and a man stuck in traffic, argued in Broward County Circuit Court that he is protected by the state’s Stand Your Ground and fleeing felon laws and that the charges against him should be dropped.

The Stand Your Ground statute allows a person - and police officers - in Florida to take up to deadly action if they feel their life is threatened. The fleeing felon law allows police to shoot at a suspect if they believe that person is a danger to society while trying to avoid custody.

The roughly 90-minute argument before Broward Circuit Court Judge Ernest Krolla Jr. came down to whether an officer should receive immunity under those statutes for the accidental killing of an innocent bystander. State prosecutor Chuck Morton, using an example of a civilian shooting at a would-be robber and accidentally killing someone taking a walk, said it should not. Morton said the self-defense argument only holds water if Mateo were charged in the shooting death of the two men accused of committing the crimes.

“You need to be prudent when shooting into crowds,” said Morton, a Broward County assistant state attorney.

Mateo’s attorney Richard Diaz argued the killing of an innocent bystander while police are shooting at someone firing in a crowd should get the same consideration of “transfer of intent” as a criminal being charged for the shooting death of someone by accident. He also told the judge, either way, his decision Monday would be “groundbreaking law.”

“The Legislature never wrote into the statute whether it does apply, or doesn’t apply,” Diaz said.

Krolla didn’t appear to be leaning in any direction, but did question Morton repeatedly on whether an officer should shoot into a crowded situation - like a football game - to subdue an active shooter. He said he’d have a decision by Monday.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation completed last year found that the six bullets that killed carjacked UPS truck driver Frank Ordonez, 27, and and Rick Cutshaw, 70, the bystander and former union organizer who was stuck in traffic that day, came from the guns of four Miami-Dade police officers.

Mateo and three other Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies, Richard Santiesteban, 40, Leslie Lee, 58 and Rodolfo Mirabal, 39, were indicted of manslaughter in Broward County in June 2024. All pleaded not guilty and all have been suspended without pay.

More than 90 bullets fired during shootout

Ordóñez and Cutshaw lost their lives in a hail of gunfire in the packed intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road during the 5 p.m. rush hour in December 2019.

Nearly 90 bullets were fired during the raging gun battle that involved more than a dozen officers from four agencies — and which was filmed live by television choppers flying overhead.

An investigation by the FDLE last August determined five bullets from Miami-Dade police officers were uncovered during Ordóñez’s autopsy. Two linked to back to Santiesteban, and the rest to Mateo, Lee and Mirabal. A single bullet was recovered during Cutshaw’s autopsy. That one was tied to Mirabal, the report states.

Also killed that day were Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, two ex-cons whose exploits that day began with a bungled attempt to rob a Coral Gables jewelry store.

The investigation found Santiesteban fired at least 44 times; Mirabal 19; Mateo 18 and Lee, six. In all, 20 Miami-Dade officers, three Miramar officers, one Pembroke Pines officer and one Florida Highway Patrol trooper were involved in the shootout that began earlier that day when a robbery at a Coral Gables jewelry store went awry.

Botched jewelry heist led to tragedy

The unlikely course of events that led to the four deaths on Dec. 19, 2024, began in the late afternoon at Regent Jewelers on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. When the robbery soured, Hill and Alexander raced from the store and hijacked the UPS truck driven by Ordóñez - with the driver still in it.

That ignited a high-speed chase up the Florida Turnpike, on Okeechobee Road and Interstate 75 - with gunfire being exchanged - and to the busy rush-hour streets of Pembroke Pines. There, the UPS truck and police cars from several agencies got stuck in a traffic jam and officers and the kidnappers began a blistering gun battle caught live on television station cameras hovering over head.

Bullets from police weapons struck several unintended targets, the FDLE report found. Some fired by Mirabal struck two vehicles, hitting a dashboard and a car seat. Four from Mateo’s weapon hit the rear bumper of another vehicle. Body camera footage also showed Mirabal stopping his cruiser behind the passenger side of the UPS truck and firing his weapon.

The report said Mateo got out of his patrol vehicle and walked toward the passenger side of the UPS truck, shooting. On police radio, Santiesteban reported that shots were fired at the officers from the driver’s side of the truck.

Judge Krolla said he expects to deal with a few other pre-trial motions Monday and Tuesday and that he expects attorneys to begin choosing jurors for Mateo’s trial some time on Wednesday.