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Jamaican extradited after two decades on the run

Published:Monday | February 8, 2021 | 12:07 AM
A policeman is seen monitoring an extradition exercise at the Norman Manley International Airport in this April 2017 photograph. A Jamaican man was extradited to the United States in January 2021 after more than 20 years on the run.
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A policeman is seen monitoring an extradition exercise at the Norman Manley International Airport in this April 2017 photograph. A Jamaican man was extradited to the United States in January 2021 after more than 20 years on the run.

A Jamaican man accused of killing three people in a vehicular incident in the United States more than 20 years ago, before fleeing to Cuba and then back to Jamaica, has been extradited.

Christopher Harvey is to face US courts with three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death hanging over his head.

The charges stemmed from a car crash that occurred at the intersection of Northwest 199th Street and Northwest 37th Avenue in Miami-Dade County in the early hours of January 30, 1999.

Harvey is accused of running the red light while going at an estimated speed of 75 miles per hour.

The collision killed 24-year-old Daylin Bueno, a mother of two; 37-year-old Becky Ballestas Marquez, also a mother of two children; and 24-year-old Maria Arandaans, a college student in town to visit her grandmother.

After the crash, Harvey reportedly fled the scene without attempting to render aid to the victims.

On March 27, 2000, Harvey entered a plea of no-contest to all charges.

The Criminal Court found him guilty and sentenced him to 12 ½ years in prison.

At his lawyer’s request, the court gave Harvey until June 1, 2000, to get his affairs in order, at which point he was to turn himself in to begin serving his sentence.

Instead, Harvey fled the country.

The US authorities indicated that a tip was received in 2007 that Harvey was possibly in custody in Cuba.

However, a lack of formal relations between Cuba and the US made extradition nearly impossible.

In 2019, information was acquired that Harvey was in Jamaica.

After a request to Jamaica for his extradition was submitted, he was taken into custody by the Jamaican authorities and has now been returned to Miami.

“The families of these three women killed by Christopher Harvey were revictimised when he fled the country in 2000,” said Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade state attorney.

“Mr Harvey admitted his guilt in Criminal Court but ran away from his personal responsibility for these crimes, just as he ran away on the night of this dreadful incident 22 years ago.”