After new arrest, Miami man who killed tourists in fiery crash spared a return to prison

The South Florida man who killed four tourists in a fiery car crash but served less than half of his sentence because of a paperwork error won’t be going back to prison.

Lawyers and a judge on Tuesday agreed to allow Willie Dumel, 32, to remain on probation, even though he had been arrested for a domestic-violence charge in Broward County after his release. Prosecutors said they were challenged in proving he violated his probation because the victim, Dumel’s girlfriend, did not want to press charges.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian added five years of probation to Dumel’s sentence. The judge agreed to the extended probation Tuesday only after he heard, via telephone, from two relatives of the victims in the fatal car crash.

“Mr. Dumel understands how close he came to going to prison,” said his lawyer, Andrew Rier. “He wanted to give closure to the families. It was a just resolution.”

Six years ago, Dumel led an Opa-locka police officer on a high-speed car chase, racing the wrong way on Interstate 95 and plowing headfirst into an SUV. It burst into flames, killing four California tourists: Lily-Marie Azarcon, 26, Dennis Ryan Riñon Ortiz, 33; U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Albertson Anthony Almase, 31; and his sister, Kristina Angela Almase, 26, a nurse.

Dumel later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and accepted a 10-year prison term.

But Dumel walked out of prison in 2017 after after serving less than half the sentence. The reason: A Miami-Dade assistant state attorney used a single legal term in a written plea agreement that mistakenly chopped the sentence in half. The error was then repeated on a court sentencing order, which was sent to the Florida prison system.

Prosecutors and the victims’ relatives did not realize he had been freed early until the Miami Herald noticed earlier this month that Dumel had been marked “released” on a Florida Department of Corrections database.

One year after his release, Dumel was arrested in Broward County on allegations that he choked his pregnant girlfriend. But she did not want to cooperate with prosecutors.

In all, Dumel will remain on state probation until about 2032, his lawyer said.

This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 3:04 PM.