Crime

After Argument in Car, Woman Accused of Running Over Boyfriend at 73 MPH and Killing Him: 'Intentional Act'

Johana Suarez, 37, of Miami, is being held in a Mississippi jail on a charge of murder

Published on March 9, 2022 03:38 PM

A couple's cross-country road trip reached a dead end early Sunday after an argument led the man to get out of the car and start walking along an interstate in Mississippi, where police allege the woman then gunned the car's engine to 73 mph and struck him.

"Mad girlfriend + vehicle = dead boyfriend," the Mobile County Sheriff's Office attempted to summarize in a news release.

"Initially it started as a pedestrian struck on the interstate," MCSO Capt. Paul Burch told Mobile TV station WALA, but after officers with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency responded and "as the case progressed, they realized it was an intentional act."

The victim, Henry Hernandez, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene.

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The incident just before 6 a.m. Sunday unfolded on Interstate 10 near the Mississippi-Alabama border.

Police say Hernandez and his girlfriend, Johana Suarez, 37, were traveling together from Miami, Fla., to California, "however, at some point during their travels, got into an argument," according to the news release.

The couple had hit the road early after spending the night in Mississippi, but upon resuming their journey the driver mistakenly drove east rather than west, police said. Authorities did not specify which individual was behind the wheel at the time. After the car stopped, Hernandez got out on the side of the interstate, with his belongings, and left Suarez alone in the vehicle.

"She drove away, she didn't get too far away, turned around, began traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of I-10 and struck him at a high rate of speed, pretty much killing him instantly," Burch said, reports WALA.

An eyewitness who was also traveling on I-10 called 911 and told detectives he saw Suarez strike the man with her car.

The sheriff's office said the black box in the vehicle revealed that Suarez was traveling at a speed of 73 mph at the time of the impact.

Suarez was arrested on a charge of murder, and on Tuesday a judge ordered her to be held without bond, reports WALA. Prosecutors had argued that the Miami woman was a flight risk because she appeared to have no ties to the area.

Suarez was not injured in the incident, reports the Associated Press. An attorney who might speak on her behalf was not immediately identified.

She is being held in the Mobile County Metro Jail pending her arraignment on Thursday.