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Mateo Pinzon Penagos
A Lake Nona High School student was arrested on Jan. 25 for a organizing a Davenport house party in July in that ended with four teenagers being injured and a 16-year-old being charged for DUI and hit-and-run.
Mateo Pinzon Penagos, a current student of Lake Nona High School, was arrested by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on charges of burglary with damages over $1,000, criminal use of personal identification and allowing minors alcohol at an open house party.
The house party occurred on July 22 in the Cypress Point gated community in Davenport.
Deputies responded to the neighborhood following noise complaints. As they arrived, teens from the party quickly began to leave.
One of the teens, 16-year-old Ryan Colom, of Winter Garden, began driving away in a Kia Stinger. His car struck four other 16-year-olds who were standing in a driveway. One of the victims was dragged under Colom’s car for about 450-feet, and she suffered permanent serious injury, according to a Polk Sheriff’s Office report. Colom fled from the scene, but was captured by deputies about eight miles away.
Colom was charged with DUI, DUI with property damage, DUI with bodily injury, DUI with serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crash with bodily injury and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage.
Additionally, damages of more than $2,000 were caused to the vacation home by party-goers, the report stated.
Detectives then focused on finding the person who hosted the illegal open house party.
The home had been rented via the online website VRBO. Rental records showed that a Corpus Christi, Texas man was listed as the renter, but the investigation determined his personal information had been stolen, and the rental was secured using his illegally obtained information.
Detectives were able to track communications back to Penagos’ residence in Orlando.
The detectives were also able to locate witnesses who saw Penagos with the stolen personal identification and had knowledge that he was responsible for arranging the open house party, the report stated.
“At the very least, open house parties are loud and disruptive to neighborhoods, and leave litter and damages behind. Many times, they get totally out of hand with large fights and shootings, ”Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said. “In this particular case, four kids were injured, one of them severely. There were numerous victims in this case and our detectives worked carefully for six months to find the person responsible for creating what turned out to be a horrific evening.”
Penagos was booked into the Orange County Jail.
Ryan Colom’s criminal trial is still pending.
Three of the four injured teens suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The fourth injured teen was seriously injured but is expected to survive. She will likely have more surgeries in her future, the report stated.
