A woman from Florida is being charged with murder after she blacked out from drinking and allegedly killed a friend who drove her home from a bar.
51-year-old Yvonne Serrano, faces second degree murder charges along with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, according to jail evidence.
Currently, Serrano is accused of shooting 21-year-old Daniela Tabares Maya in the head after the two went out with friends last week.
Image via Broward County Sheriff’s Office
The very next morning after 6 a.m., Serrano phoned the police and informed officers she had been leaving her Coral Springs home to go to the gym when she found the body of a woman she claimed she did not know in her driveway. She then called 911.
“What’s going on there?” a 911 dispatcher asked Serrano, according to a recording of the phone call.
“I don’t know,” Serrano replied. “I don’t know, I just walked out and there is a car in my driveway with a dead body.”
But in actuality, Serrano did know Maya, she later informed police. Both women belonged to the same gym and had been out together with friends as well as fellow gym members the night before.
Serrano then allegedly informed police she remembered going to the bar but had blacked out and was not sure how she got home.
Then, Serrano informed police she had woken up in her bed, but then allegedly changed her story — admitting she had actually woken up sitting in the passenger seat of Maya’s car.
When she saw her friend lying dead in the driveway with one foot still inside the car — she checked for a pulse. And when she realized the 21-year-old woman was dead, Serrano told police she grabbed her purse and went inside to call 911.
Upon realizing the 21-year-old woman was dead, Serrano told police she grabbed her purse and went inside to call 911.
Serrano claimed she was initially going to take an Uber home that night but Maya had offered to drive her instead. She then admitted to washing the tank top she was wearing the night of Maya’s death because it had some blood on it. In addition, she deleted all footage prior to 6:36 a.m. from her Ring home security camera.
A neighbor informed the Sun Sentinel he and his wife didn’t associate with Serrano because of her drinking and had to walk her home from a party in the past.
“We’re not 18, 19, college kids anymore,” he said, according to the paper. “My wife doesn’t like that kind of stuff.”
But video footage taken by a neighbor’s surveillance camera reveals Maya’s vehicle pulling into Serrano’s driveway at 2 a.m. and five minutes later, the SUV’s headlights turn off.
Serrano is married and has an adult child, according to the neighbor.
A medical examiner revealed that Maya had died of one gunshot wound to the head.
Image via GoFundMe
Serrano has a concealed weapons permit and owns three guns. She informed police she had brought her 9mm handgun out with her on the night of Maya’s death. Police then found a 9mm shell casing on the passenger side of Maya’s car and the handgun in Serrano’s bedroom.
“Daniela is an inspiration,” friend of Maya’s, Rick Davies, wrote on a GoFundMe page started to help with funeral funds. “She is the shining example of what the best of us can only try to be. It shines through in the joy, laughter, and loving sassiness she shared with us. It shines through in the boundless love she gave us and the selfless care she took for the people around her. We cannot measure her loss.”