Arrest confirmed of US passport holder who hit cyclist and drove 29 km with body on hood

The Superior Court of Appeals confirmed the provisional detention of a 39-year-old man with a US passport accused of running over a cyclist and driving 29 kilometers with the victim’s body on the hood.

The accident occurred on the night of December 31, 2023, when Jimmy Szkolnik driving a Lexus and hit 26-year-old cyclist César Manuel Moreno. He was accused of manslaughter in a hearing before a guarantee judge, held in January, and his provisional arrest was ordered.

In the hearing on Thursday, January 18, judges Adrián Hernández, Yanilka Quijano, and Clara Montenegro ruled that the defendant’s defense failed to establish criteria to change the decision made by the guarantee judge.

They concluded that the provisional detention measure is “necessary, appropriate and proportional to the nature of the incident,” after assessing the procedural risks of danger of flight, neglect of the process, possibility of destruction of evidence, and danger to the community.

The prosecutor assured that the accused remains a flight risk since he is of Venezuelan origin and has a US passport.

Rodríguez said that Szkolnik altered the crime scene by not stopping the vehicle when the accident occurred and drove for over 29 kilometers with the body on the roof of his car, from El Espavé to Casamar.

Rodriguez, said that there was a flight risk for the accused.

According to the prosecutor’s investigation, the accident occurred at 7:40 pm on December 30, when the vehicle driven by the accused collided with Moreno’s bicycle, whose body remained on the roof of the vehicle.

The prosecution gathered the testimony of two security agents at the entrance checkpoint of the Casamar development, one of whom reported that he saw the car driven by Szkolnik arrive and raised the security barrier to give way, observed that on the roof there was a bloody body. i

The agents told the prosecutor that the vehicle went to the PH Marina Azul in the Casamar residential area and then tried to leave the urbanization, but the security agents had already alerted the police.

They said the car, as it had been located near a garden. For the prosecution, the defendant’s actions indicate that he tried to escape.

Héctor Zavala, Szkolnik’s lawyer, said his client felt an impact on the vehicle in a dark area and thought it was an attempted robbery, so did not stop.

The accident occurred in an area without lighting and the bicycle did not have lights or reflective stripes. He asked the magistrates to grant his client a home deposit measure with the possibility of working to be able to pay financial compensation to the victim’s relatives.