Suspected driver in fatal Miami hit-and-run has 5 convictions for driving without a license
The North Miami-Dade man accused of being the hit-and-run driver who killed Leonel Kindelan while he was riding on a medical motorized scooter on Dec. 3, has paid $2,513.50 in fines for driving on a suspended license.
And driving while the license is suspended is one of the charges facing 36-year-old Theodore Rivers along with leaving the scene of a crash involving a death and tampering with physical evidence. Rivers remains in custody on a $26,500 bond.
Among Rivers’ numerous traffic citations in Miami-Dade since 2003 are convictions for driving with a suspended license in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2013, the last four times doing so knowing his license was suspended. In December, he was on a one-year suspension of his license as part of a sentence for his third conviction for felony cocaine possession.
The incident
No substances appear on the arrest report concerning the hit-and-run in the Model City area from around 6:30 p.m. Dec. 3. What does appear is a description of police literally piecing together a path to the towering (6-foot-8, 340 pounds) Rivers.
The report says surveillance video shows Kindelan’s medical mobility scooter stopped in the middle of Northwest 54th Street as he crossed mid-block. The scooter rolled backward, placing Kindelan in the path of an eastbound dark SUV. The SUV’s front driver’s side bashed Kindelan and scooter across 54th Street, where a westbound Chevrolet Impala smashed into them.
Meanwhile, the report says, the SUV stopped briefly before wheeling south on Northwest 13th Avenue.
The investigation
Detectives picking through the mess found a black plastic car part with a part number that identified it as a bumper filler for a Chevrolet, Avalanche, Suburban or Tahoe from 2007 to 2014.
On Jan. 4, a Crime Stoppers tip said there was a black Chevy Tahoe parked at a house in the 5400 block of Northwest Fifth Avenue and the driver might have been a 6-foot-8 guy named “Teddy.”
Police found a black 2007 Chevy Tahoe parked in the backyard of a duplex in that block. Once allowed onto the property, they found the SUV lacked a front bumper, front grille, left fender, hood and support parts for the left front end. All that happened to be piled into the nearby bushes. Also, a front radiator support was pushed back.
The arrest report says, “The parts that were missing from this vehicle were consistent with being damaged in the crash that occurred Dec. 3, 2019...”
Detectives were told a “tall, black male” parked the SUV back there a few weeks before and began taking it apart. A check of the vehicle identification number said it belonged to Theodore Rivers.
Rivers was seen on Jan. 13 at the corner of Northwest 68th Terrace and Northwest Second Avenue, but was gone by the time police got there. Rivers actually turned himself in last Wednesday, Jan. 15, around 4:30 p.m.
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