Driver learns fate following guilty plea for fatal Miami-Dade hit-and-run crash

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida man learned his fate for a deadly crash that happened nearly three years ago when he was 18 years old.

Prosecutors say Davian Kates was speeding in a car full of friends and left one of them to die in the wreck.

On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Kates to ten years in a Florida state prison.

It happened around 7 a.m. on Jan. 2 in the area of Southwest 128th Street and 137th Avenue in southwest Miami-Dade County.

There was a strong showing of support for Joseph Gabriel McGuire right outside of the courtroom where the person responsible for his death was being sentenced.

The hearing lasted well into the evening hours on Tuesday.

Kates pled guilty to a series of felony charges related to the crash.

Prosecutors say he was speeding, going 125 miles an hour, and under the influence as he lost control and slammed into palm trees.

Five teenage passengers were in the car, the youngest just thirteen.

All of the victims were rushed to area hospitals, but McGuire, who was eighteen at the time, ded from his injuries.

Kates, his one-time best friend who was behind the wheel, fled the scene.

“The only justice for me is to have my son come home and i don’t have that so it’s fine,” said Jodi Hernandez, McGuire’s mother.

McGuire’s loves ones packed into the courtroom, seeing Kates face to face for the first time since the deadly crash.

Each one delivered a powerful, emotional written message to the man heading to prison.

“There’s no words, the feeling, the pain just ripping through you,” said Diamil Gomez, McGuire’s step-mother. “I try to hold myself but it’s very difficult.”

“We’ve just kinda stuck together as a family to try to do better with each other,” added Hernandez.