Miami-Dade cop cleared in UPS truck shootout under Stand Your Ground: judge
A Broward judge on Thursday dismissed the case against a Miami-Dade police officer — charged in the death of a UPS driver during a 2019 shootout at a busy intersection — citing Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
Broward Circuit Court Judge Ernest Kollra ruled in favor of suspended officer Jose Mateo, who had argued that Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law barred his prosecution. Kollra’s decision came after prosecutor Charles Morton and Mateo’s attorney Richard Diaz sparred about evidence in the case during two weeks of hearings.
Mateo, 33, and three other Miami-Dade police officers — Richard Santiesteban, 34, Leslie Lee, 58 and Rodolfo Mirabal, 40 — were indicted on manslaughter charges in June 2024. All pleaded not guilty and all have been suspended without pay.
UPS driver Frank Ordóñez, 27, and Rick Cutshaw, 70, were killed after a botched Coral Gables jewelry store heist led to the carjacking of the UPS truck and its driver, a high-speed Interstate chase across Miami-Dade and Broward and a hail of gunfire at the traffic-packed intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road during the afternoon rush hour.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office said Thursday it intends to appeal Kollra’s ruling and move forward with the other officers’ cases.
“Immunity from prosecution is not the same as a defense presented to a jury from this community,” the state attorney’s office said in a statement. “It is our belief that Stand Your Ground immunity does not apply in matters involving innocent bystanders, like Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, who presented no danger to officers. In this incident, two innocent men were killed and the lives of numerous other innocent bystanders were endangered.”
‘We still don’t have justice’
Joe Merino, Ordóñez’s stepfather, said his wife and the rest of the family are devastated by the ruling. But Merino said he’s hopeful about prosecutors appealing Kollra’s decision.
“It’s not over yet,” Merino said, adding that the case has been an open wound in the family’s healing process. “Dec. 5 will be six years, and we still don’t have justice.”
For Merino, the police’s response to the incident was reckless and could have caused a lot more fatalities. The officers knew the robbers had a hostage, he said, and had several opportunities to stop the truck, including attempting a PIT maneuver, a tactic where police hit a fleeing suspect’s car to make it stop.
“He never stood his ground,” Merino said. “They all got out of their vehicles and started shooting, started firing.”
‘Need to protect our police officers’: Attorney
Diaz told the Miami Herald that the judge’s ruling was the most rewarding victory he has had in his 37-year career.
“I am elated to have been able to get this ruling from the court, which for decades will tell police officers and all of those who wear the silver badge that they can go to work in comfort knowing that Florida law will protect them for using any amount of force necessary… so long as it’s justified,” Diaz said.
“[The death of innocent people] is a sad reality of the violent world we live in,” said Diaz, a former Miami-Dade police officer. “We need to protect our police officers and [help them] protect us.“
Attorneys for Santiesteban, Lee and Mirabal have not indicated whether they plan on raising the Stand Your Ground defense in their respective cases.
In the eight-page order, Kollra determined that Mateo was justified in his use of force because he acted to prevent death or injury. The judge also said prosecutors failed to establish that Mateo’s use of force wasn’t reasonable or justified.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade officer charged in UPS truck shootout granted Stand Your Ground hearing
Started at Coral Gables jewelry store
The Dec. 5, 2019, shootout began with ex-cons Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill’s bungled attempt to rob Regents Jewelers at 386 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. Hill and Alexander, both 41, dressed as couriers, with one wearing a flesh-colored mask and a U.S. Postal Service hat. They began firing high-powered weapons immediately upon entering the store, striking a store employee in the head, who managed to survive.
When the store’s owner grabbed a weapon, the men, having stolen tens of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry, jumped into a truck and sped away. They ditched the truck at Southwest Eighth Street and carjacked the UPS truck driven by Ordóñez, a father of two who was making a routine delivery — and was inside the truck.
The carjacking ignited a high-speed police chase across Miami-Dade and Broward counties, including on Interstate 75. But when the UPS truck got stuck in the standstill traffic at the Miramar intersection, chaos ensued. More than 200 rounds of ammunition were fired as officers shielded themselves behind cars stuck in traffic. When it was over, Hill, Alexander, Ordóñez and Cutshaw, a local union worker on his way home, were dead.
“Here, there is no question that [Mateo] was responding to a threat initiated and continued by two armed convicted felons... who did not cease this mass shooting event until they were neutralized,” Kollra said in the order.
During the proceedings, Morton, the prosecutor, played body camera footage that showed more than a dozen officers getting out of their cruisers and immediately shooting toward the truck. Video from a helicopter captured the chase that led to the shootout; at one point, a dispatcher warned police that “shots [had] been fired” and said the robbers had a gun to Ordóñez’s head.
There was no evidence that any of the bullets were fired from the truck, according to the FBI forensic examiner’s testimony. However, a bystander and several police officers said they saw several bullets fly from the truck.
When one of the Miami-Dade deputies who fired his weapon was asked by Mateo’s attorney if he believed he was being shot at, the deputy responded, “One hundred percent. Absolutely.”
Kollra, in the order, concluded that body camera footage and testimony from multiple witnesses confirmed that Hill and Alexander “started, continued and chose to fire first at anyone that came near the UPS truck.”
During the hearings, Diaz argued that Mateo was attempting to protect the community by firing his weapon.
“[Mateo’s intention was to] save lives, plain and simple.” Diaz said. “His and everybody else’s.”
Barrage of bullets
During the hearings, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent who investigated the shooting testified 20 officers fired up to 219 rounds during the mayhem.
Santiesteban emptied two 23-round capacity magazines and could have fired up to 44 rounds. Mateo fired up to 18 rounds from his department-issued Glock 17, according to FDLE. The magazine holds up to 17, and he had one round left in the chamber, the agent testified.
The officers were charged after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement identified five bullets from 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. Only Mirabal was charged with Cutshaw’s death.
Miami Herald staff writer David Goodhue contributed to this report
This story was originally published September 18, 2025 at 1:24 PM.
