Estrella

By Ken Jackson

The Florida Highway Patrol released a new extended list of charges against Angela Estrella, the New York woman who drove her 2011 Toyota RAV4 on a wild ride Tuesday up the northbound Florida’s Turnpike and then west on U.S. Highway 192, causing at least four crashes.

Estrella, 36, was clocked at 112 mph on the Turnpike when troopers attempted to pull her over. Instead of stopping she exited onto 192 and intentionally rammed several vehicles, including an FHP patrol car, caused two crashes, fled from troopers, attempted to run over trooper Jose Nieves Jr., and attempted to kill her 18-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son in a five-mile stretch from the Turnpike to Michigan Avenue, where the vehicle finally crashing to a stop, the FHP report said.

Estrella already had three counts of leaving the scene of a crash against her when she was taken into custody Tuesday. According to FHP spokesperson Kim Montes, Estrella was charged with additional charges Friday, including two counts each of kidnapping and attempted murder, three counts each of fleeing to elude and aggravated battery and a count each of child abuse, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident involving injury and carrying a concealed weapon, a knife hidden in her bra that she threatened troopers she would use.

In addition to the criminal charges, Estrella will be charged with speeding, passing a stopped school bus and failure to stop for a red light.

She was finally arrested on Thursday night, and is being held in the Osceola County Jail on zero bond.

According to the FHP arrest report, before troopers clocked Estrella at 112 mph on the Turnpike,the daughter warned Estrella that she was going 120 mph; Estrella replied that she wanted to get up to 140 in order to crash and kill all three of them. The daugther reportedly called an aunt, asking for help, that her mother was speeding and bumping into other cars and that she was scared for her life. She later told troopers she thought the final crash at Michigan Avenue and U.S. Highway 192, where police finally stopped Estrella and extricated her from the SUV out the window, saved the life of both her and her brother.

Estrella on Tuesday was committed under the Baker Act at Osceola Regional Hospital, where she was taken to treat injuries suffered in being removed from the car.