‘Measure of justice’: Woman who fled to Mexico after fatal DUI crash pleads guilty
Holding a collage of photos of his sister, Joaquin Freire detailed how his sister Gloria Marcia Hall was devoted to her two daughters — until she was taken from them by a drunk driver almost two decades ago.
It was a wound that has never healed — and was exacerbated by Leydis Menendez Abdala, 52, eluding justice for years.
“Instead of facing what you have done, you chose to run,” Freire said, staring at Menendez Abdala. “For 20 years, you lived as a fugitive instead of taking responsibility for the life that you stole and the family that you shattered.”
Menendez Abdala pleaded guilty on Tuesday afternoon to DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. As part of a plea deal, Menendez Abdala was sentenced to five years in prison and will receive credit for the more than five months that she has served in jail.
If she had gone to trial, she was facing up to 15 years behind bars.
During the hearing, prosecutor Laura Adams said five years wasn’t enough of a punishment but was a fair resolution considering that evidence from 2006 may no longer be available.
Menendez Abdala was silent during the proceeding. About a dozen of Hall’s relatives — some tearing up — packed the courtroom.
“Mr. Freire mentioned that there’s been a lack of justice for two decades. That ends now,” Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Carlos Gamez said before formally sentencing Menendez Abdala.
On Aug. 12, 2006, Menendez Abdala, whose blood-alcohol level was over twice the legal limit, ran a flashing red light and crashed into Hall, a 40-year-old mother of two and sister of Freire, a Miami Police commander.
She was on the lam until last August, when Menendez Abdala was extradited to Miami from Mexico by the U.S. Marshals Service. Menendez Abdala’s boyfriend, who worked in the Hialeah Police Department, tipped her off before she could be arrested, prosecutors say.
READ MORE: Woman who fled after fatal DUI crash in Hialeah arrested in Mexico 19 years later
Appearing via Zoom, Hall’s ex-husband, Patrick Hall, said his wife was a kind soul who was a doting mother to their daughters, Katherine and Victoria.
“She was dedicated to helping others and actively raising her daughters to be good compassionate citizens of the world,” he said.
Menendez Abdala’s plea, Hall said, is a “measure of justice” for his daughters, who have had to suffer growing up without their mother. Victoria was 14 and Katherine 10 when their mother was killed.
The girls had to navigate many milestones — graduations, weddings and having children — without having their mother’s support and guidance.
“I would not wish this experience ... on my worst enemy, not even the defendant,” Patrick Hall said. “It’s impossible to calculate the full toll this has taken on our lives, but I know they miss their mother every single day. ... Time has only shown us how much was stolen.”
Hall’s mother, in a letter read in Spanish by her daughter-in-law Ruby Freire, detailed how Menendez Abdala took her daughter away from her — and Hall from her two daughters.
“Nothing in the world is going to return my daughter,” the letter said. “There is no sufficient punishment, nor words sufficiently strong that will return … the life that was taken from us or fill the void that was left in our heart and in our family.”
Reflecting on Hall’s life, Freire recalled how she was a protective big sister who watched over him throughout their childhood. Freire said he has always felt like she protected him in her final moments as he drove through the intersection moments after the crash, unaware that his sister was a victim of the wreckage.
While lambasting Menendez Abdala for her selfishness, Freire also blasted her family members — and her former cop boyfriend — who helped her flee to Mexico. Before police could arrest her, her boyfriend tipped her off and she fled to Mexico.
No one else has been charged in relation to the case.
“I hope they [have] to feel the same pain my family has endured for 20 years,” Freire told reporters after the sentencing. “Instead of doing the right thing, … they chose to help her.”
A fatal DUI crash
The crash happened at the intersection of West 68th Street and 16th Avenue in Hialeah. Menendez Abdala, 33 at the time, was driving north in a blue Toyota Solara when she failed to stop, police say.
Hall was driving west and had the right of way when Menendez Abdala, who was driving north, slammed into her green Mazda pickup truck around 4:25 a.m. Hall died on the scene.
She had been on her way to church to meet other church members before boarding a bus to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tampa.
Menendez Abdala was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital after the crash. While at the hospital, her blood was drawn after police obtained a search warrant to test her blood-alcohol levels.
About a month after the crash, test results showed Menendez Abdala’s blood-alcohol level was 0.180 per 100 milliliters — twice the legal limit of 0.08. But she had already escaped to Mexico because she had been released from the hospital.
“It took two decades, but we finally got here,” Freire said after the sentencing. “We can have closure now that it’s over.”
Miami Herald Staff Writer Milena Malaver contributed to this report
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 2:23 PM with the headline "‘Measure of justice’: Woman who fled to Mexico after fatal DUI crash pleads guilty."
