A Lake Worth Beach man who was high on marijuana when he turned his car into the path of a motorcyclist, killing him instantly, will spend more than a decade in prison.
Juan Escobar Hernandez, 20, pleaded guilty on June 22 to DUI manslaughter for the 2024 death of 27-year-old Jorge Alberto Miranda De Leon. He did so without first negotiating a deal with prosecutors, leaving Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer to decide his penalty.
Addressing Escobar Hernandez during a June 25 sentencing hearing, Suskauer called his actions “absolutely reprehensible.”
“I saw that video,” the judge said. “You didn’t give that person a chance. He had no chance of survival, went flying in the air and died because of what you did.”
Suskauer sentenced Hernandez to 10 years and five months in prison, followed by three years of probation.
Teen driver had only a learner’s permit
Miranda De Leon was riding his motorcycle north on Dixie Highway in Lake Worth Beach just after 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 29, 2024, when Escobar Hernandez, then 18, made a slow, sweeping left turn into his path.
The motorcycle slammed into the passenger side of Hernandez’s black Dodge Charger. Miranda De Leon flew off the bike, vaulted over the car and landed headfirst on the pavement. He died from blunt-force injuries.
The Charger then spun into a marked Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office patrol car stopped at the intersection, its dashcam recording.
At the scene, investigators found a marijuana cigarette on the floor of the Charger, smelled marijuana inside the car and found a small cardboard packet with a green leafy substance in Escobar Hernandez’s pocket.
Escobar Hernandez told investigators he had seen Miranda De Leon coming but thought he had enough space to complete the turn. He also said he had smoked marijuana earlier that evening, though he had no medical marijuana card.
He didn’t have a valid driver’s license, either; only a learner’s permit that barred him from driving past 10 p.m. and required a licensed driver 21 or older to be in the vehicle. He was accompanied instead by his pregnant girlfriend, who was 17 and sitting in the passenger seat.
Driver earned a second DUI charge while being investigated for the first
Authorities investigated for more than a year before arresting Escobar Hernandez in June 2025. In the interim, he picked up a second DUI.
In December 2024, about 10 months after Miranda De Leon’s death, civilians and police found Escobar Hernandez passed out behind the wheel of a car at an intersection in Palm Springs, the car still in drive with his foot on the brake.
When an officer knocked on the window, Escobar Hernandez woke up and, ignoring commands to put the car in park, rolled through a red light into the intersection. He struck a median, drove into oncoming traffic and hit a curb before slamming into a tree. The officer blocked him with his patrol car to stop him from driving further.
Escobar Hernandez told investigators he had drunk two or three glasses of liquor and smoked marijuana from a vape pen. He pleaded guilty to DUI in February 2025 and was placed on probation.
Judge asks DUI driver: ‘How dare you?’
Prosecutors offered Escobar Hernandez a 10-year plea deal in March 2025. With the offer rejected, Assistant State Attorney Brooke Soloway asked Suskauer to sentence him to 13 years instead, pointing to the second DUI as evidence that Escobar Hernandez had learned nothing from the fatal crash.
His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Shelby Smith, asked for six years under a youthful-offender designation. She pointed to Escobar Hernandez’s age, his anxiety, his Catholic upbringing in a tight-knit Lake Worth Beach family and the trauma of having watched a neighbor bleed to death at a family party when he was 7 years old.
“Right now, Juan Escobar Hernandez is 20 years old,” she said. “He is a father to a little boy, and a beloved son and brother. After his sentence in this case, he hopes to continue working to provide a better life for his child.”
Suskauer, unmoved, reminded the young man “you were absolutely stoned out of your mind when you drove that car.”
“You caused the death of an innocent driver,” the judge said. “And yet you continued on that same path after that, showing complete disregard for other people in the community. How dare you?”
Escobar Hernandez must serve at least four years of his 10-year sentence before he’s eligible for early release.
As conditions of his probation, Escobar Hernandez must enroll in DUI school within 30 days of his release from prison, complete 50 Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings and attend two victim-impact panel sessions.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: ‘How dare you?’ Judge blasts Lake Worth driver in motorcyclist’s death
Reporting by Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
