He killed 3 in a car crash, then fled the country. After decades, he’s back in a Miami jail

For killing three people in a hit-and-run car crash in North Miami-Dade, Christopher Rochester Harvey was sentenced to more than 12 years in state prison. But a Miami judge in 2000 allowed him to remain free for three months before reporting to prison.

Harvey promptly fled to Jamaica — where he lived for two decades as a free man.

But Harvey, 54, is now back in Miami, where he landed Friday accompanied by U.S. Marshals to be booked into the county jail.

After he learned that U.S. Marshals were hunting him, Harvey turned himself into local police in the Runaway Bay area of St. Anns, Jamaica. He did not fight the extradition, and arrived on a flight to Miami on Friday afternoon.

“It is incredibly rewarding to see the hard work of the dedicated women and men of the U.S. Marshals service, in strong partnership with the State Attorney’s Extradition Unit, result in the consistent and efficient return of violent fugitives without regard to international boundaries,” said South Florida U.S. Marshal Gadyaces Serralta.

Harvey was first arrested in 1999 after police said he limped away from a car crash that killed three women near what is now Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Police said Harvey was driving a Toyota Camry on Northwest 199th Street when the car crossed Northwest 37th Avenue without stopping at a red flashing light. He crashed into a Honda Civic traveling south on Northwest 37th Avenue.

The three women: driver Daylin Bueno, 24, Becky Marquez, 37, and Maria Aranda, 24. Bueno and Marquez each had two children. Two passengers in their car were also hospitalized with injuries.

Rochester, who then lived in Lauderhill, accepted a guilty plea and was sentenced to 12 1/2 years behind bars. But then-Circuit Judge Roberto Pineiro allowed him to stay free for three more months. He was to surrender on June 1, 2000, but disappeared.

“The families of these three women killed by Christopher Harvey were re-victimized when he fled the country in 2000. Mr. Harvey admitted his guilt in Criminal Court but ran away from his personal responsibility for these crimes, just as he ran away on the night of this dreadful incident 22 years ago,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.

The investigation was spearheaded by the U.S. Marshals, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Christine Zahralban, the head of the extradition unit, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and Jamaican police.