3 Miami-Dade officers charged in UPS truck shootout get Stand Your Ground hearing
Three Miami-Dade police officers charged with manslaughter in the death of a UPS driver during a 2019 shootout at a busy Broward intersection were granted a Stand Your Ground hearing — almost a month after a judge dismissed the charge of another officer, citing immunity.
On Monday, Broward Circuit Court Judge Ernest Kollra scheduled the lengthy hearing — during which evidence of the shootout and officers’ use of force will be presented — for the week of Feb. 2. The proceeding, Kollra said, will include the three remaining officers in the case: Richard Santiesteban, 34, Leslie Lee, 58 and Rodolfo Mirabal, 40.
In September, 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.
MORE: Miami-Dade cop cleared in UPS truck shootout under Stand Your Ground: judge
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. Prosecutors appealed Kollra’s ruling.
Frank Ordóñez, a 27-year-old UPS truck driver, and Rick Cutshaw, 70, were killed in a hail of gunfire in the packed intersection of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road during rush hour in December 2019.
“Immunity from prosecution is not the same as a defense presented to a jury from this community,” the Broward State Attorney’s Office said after the ruling. “It is our belief that Stand Your Ground immunity does not apply in matters involving innocent bystanders, like Frank Ordóñez 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.”
Mateo, 33, and the three other Miami-Dade police officers were indicted on manslaughter charges in June 2024. All pleaded not guilty and all have been suspended without pay.
Attorneys for Mirabal and Santiesteban already filed their Stand Your Ground motions. During Monday’s hearing, Lee’s attorney said he would file his motion in the next day or so.
David Braun, who is representing Mirabal, argued that the Stand Your Ground hearing was not necessary because the judge previously ruled that Mateo had immunity from prosecution under the law.
“Why do we have to go do another Stand Your Ground hearing at all?” Braun said. “It seems to me that the state should be [dropping the charges]... The facts are… the same facts.”
Kollra, however, said “each case is separate” and ordered the hearing.
Cross-county chase ends in gunfire
The Dec. 5, 2019, shootout began with ex-cons Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill’s bungled attempt to rob a Coral Gables jewelry store. After, Alexander and Hill, both 41, 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 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.
During Mateo’s hearing, 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.
