Police Seek Driver in Deadly Florida Day Care Crash

Florida authorities Thursday said they were scouring the state for the man they said fled in the vehicle that caused another car to crash into an area daycare, killing a 4-year-old girl and injuring more than a dozen others.

A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for any information that may lead officials to Robert A. Corchado, 28, who police said is on the lam following the crash. Corchado allegedly rented a black 2014 Mazda CX Wednesday evening with the license CHRQ41.

Crimeline

A reward is being offered for information inconnection to Robert Corachado, a suspect in a hit-and-run crash at a daycare in Orlando, Fla.

“Everything that is possible is being done to find him right now," said Cindy Williams, a spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol.

Williams said Corchado's photo is being broadcast statewide, and points of exit, such as airports and ports, have been alerted. She added that there's a possibility the fugitive may be armed.

Corchado’s criminal record is littered with drug charges, including the possession of cocaine and heroin with intent to sell and a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of a crash that involved property damage.

Williams said the man also has ties to the Latin Kings gang. She pleaded with the media to distribute his photo widely.

Manhunt on for Florida hit-and-run driver

"Please, please, help us out," she said.

Police said a Dodge Durango crashed into another car, a Toyota Solara, that then struck the KinderCare building in Winter Park.

The Dodge fled the scene, but police were able to locate it hours later after the driver abandoned it outside of a house.

—Becky Bratu

Woman Who Stabbed Boyfriend With Stiletto Describes Killing

A Houston woman convicted of fatally stabbing her boyfriend with a 5 ½-inch stiletto heel told jurors Thursday that she killed him to save her own life during a brutal fight in which she was chased down, knocked into a wall and thrown over a couch.

Ana Trujillo took the witness stand for the first time in the two-week trial as part of the penalty phase, which will decide her sentence.

During more than five hours of rambling testimony by mid-afternoon, Trujillo said that she had been repeatedly abused by men, including sexual assault by her first husband.

Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle via AP

Defense attorney Jack Carroll, left, and Ana Trujillo demonstrate the fight that led to a fatal stabbing as she testifies during the punishment phase of her trial on Thursday, April 10 in Houston.

The jury convicted Trujillo on Tuesday of murder in last June's killing of her boyfriend, 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson, at his home. Prosecutors say she pinned him down and stabbed him at least 25 times with the heel of her shoe. Trujillo and her lawyers said she acted in self-defense.

Trujillo told jurors Andersson became enraged and she fought for her life during a fight that lasted more than an hour. She said she tried to calm him down, but Andersson started yelling at her and Trujillo realized she could not talk him down.

"I became frightened. I did fear for my life. I felt he lost it," she said, adding that she started striking him with the shoe anywhere she could.

"Why did you keep on hitting him?" her attorney Jack Carroll asked. "He wouldn't let go of my leg. The pain wouldn't stop," she said. Trujillo said that at first she hit him on his back and on his arms, then on his head as a last resort.

"I had no idea I was hurting him that badly," she said. "I reached over and said, 'Oh God, what happened?' I reached over and my hands were full of blood."

Trujillo told jurors she had been sexually assaulted by her first husband and told jurors that another boyfriend had kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant, resulting in a miscarriage.

Trujillo also told jurors a friend in 2009 had tried to rape her in his apartment, pinning her down and that she used the only weapon within reach — a candlestick — to fend him off.

Trujillo's former friend testified Wednesday that it was Trujillo who knocked him out with the candlestick in an unprovoked attack. No charges were filed related to that incident.

On Wednesday, prosecutors presented 19 witnesses during the trial's punishment phase. Most of the witnesses detailed Trujillo's criminal history or firsthand experiences in which she became violent toward them when she drank.

Trujillo was arrested twice for drunken driving, once in 2008 and again in 2010. She had been drinking the night of Andersson's death but her blood alcohol level was not tested, according to testimony.

—The Associated Press

Two Shot in Front of Ohio Elementary School

By M. Alex Johnson

An Ohio elementary school was briefly locked down Thursday afternoon after two people were shot near the school, school officials told NBC News.

Jackie Bryant, a spokeswoman for the Columbus City Schools, said the shooting occurred off school grounds but near the entrance of Liberty Elementary School.

Bryant said no pupils were involved.

WCMH-TV

Police investigate after two people, including a 14-year-old boy, were shot Thursday in front of an elementary school on the southeast side of Columbus, Ohio.

The circumstances of the shootings couldn't immediately be determined, but NBC station WCMH of Columbus reported that a 14-year-old boy was being treated at Nationwide Children's Hospital and that a 20-year-old man was being treated at Grant Medical Center.

The school system told NBC News that Independence High School, which is across the street, had already dismissed its students for the day when the shooting occurred about 3:30 p.m. ET. Pupils remaining at the elementary school weren't allowed to leave for about an hour while police cleared the scene, it said.  Two Shot in Front of Ohio Elementary School.

First published April 10th 2014, 3:48 pm  

1 child dead, 14 hurt in Florida day care crash

AP Photo: John Raoux

Parents and children are escorted from a day care center on April 9, 2014, in Winter Park, Fla.

9 min ago By MIKE SCHNEIDER and SUZETTE LABOY of Associated Press

WINTER PARK, Fla. (AP) — A car smashed into an Orlando-area day care Wednesday, killing a girl and injuring 14 others, at least a dozen of them children, and authorities were searching for the driver of an SUV who they say started the crash, officials said.

A Toyota Solara convertible went out of control after it was struck by a Dodge Durango, jumped a curb and smashed into the day care, breaking through the wall and into the building, said Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Wanda Diaz. The convertible driver was not hurt.
The Durango left the scene but was located almost two hours later after it had been abandoned at a home. The highway patrol said it is looking for 26-year-old Robert Corchado, who has been arrested eight times since 2000, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. Troopers said he was the driver of the Durango, but wouldn't say how they established that. Troopers said Corchado may be trying to leave the area, and troopers and deputies headed to Orlando International Airport to look for him.

Courtesy WESH-TV

The scene at a Florida day care center after a vehicle hit the building on April 9, 2014.

Diaz said a girl died at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, but she didn't have any more information on her. One person at the hospital was in critical condition and five others were in serious condition, said spokeswoman Katie Dagenais.

In all, 13 people were hospitalized and two others were treated at the scene, said John Mulhall, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Rescue.
Several of the injured at the KinderCare building in Winter Park were reported to be in "very, very serious condition," Diaz said.
A man answered the phone for a number listed to Corchado and hung up when he was asked, "May I speak to Robert Corchado."
"Please keep a lookout and let us know if you see anything," said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said.

Corchado's most recent arrest was on a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving damage, a felony charge of selling narcotics and felony marijuana possession last December. He was out on more than $10,000 bond and had pleaded not guilty to the charges. His defense attorney in that case, Jack Kaleita, didn't return a phone call or email after business hours.
Department of Corrections records show he has served prison time for trafficking cocaine and extortion.
Jacobs called the crash an "absolute tragedy and disaster."
Local television footage showed small children and infants in cribs taken outside on the day care's playground and several of the injured were carried out on stretchers.
The highway patrol reported that the injured were taken to five different hospitals.
Late Wednesday afternoon parents could be seen waiting to pick up their children, and then clutching them in their arms as they were escorted to their vehicles by authorities.
The day care's website says the center provides childcare and learning opportunities for children ages 6 weeks to 12 years old and has been in the community for over 25 years.