Current Conditions
28°F - SNOW
(1147) (492) (345) (263) (249) (89) (88) (69) (48) (38) (37) (33) (8) (7) (3) (2) (2) (2)
They planned to arrest the Lancaster city man and charge him with homicide by vehicle for allegedly driving drunk in Lehigh County in June and causing an accident that killed his 12-year-old daughter and injured three of his other children.
Rodriguez-Reyes, however, was a no-show and authorities are now asking the public for help in tracking him down.
"It doesn't matter that the victim in this case was his daughter," state Trooper Rich Drum said. "He chose to put those kids in that car. He shouldn't have been driving in the first place."
According to published reports, Rodriguez-Reyes was driving a Mitsubishi sport utility vehicle on Interstate 78 at 2:46 a.m. on June 12 when he crossed a grass median bordering an on-ramp and drove into the path of a tractor-trailer traveling in the same direction.
The truck hit Rodriguez-Reyes' SUV and sent it spinning into another tractor-trailer.
The SUV then smashed into a concrete barrier.
Rodriguez-Reyes' daughter, Scarlin Mabel Rodriguez-Garcia, 12, was ejected from the SUV and died a day later. Three other children, ranging in age from 11 to 17, suffered injuries of varying severity.
Rodriguez-Reyes also suffered minor injuries. He was found to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.12 percent at the time of the accident. Motorists are considered legally drunk if their blood-alcohol content is .08 percent.
Within days after the accident, state police at Fogelsville charged Rodriguez-Reyes with homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person, driving under the influence and aggravated assault while driving under the influence. He was never arrested because police could not find him.
Authorities been looking for him ever since.
According to Drum, Rodriguez-Reyes was supposed to appear in county court Monday in connection with an unrelated incident.
City police arrested Rodriguez-Reyes last December after he allegedly fired a gun in the courtyard of the Garden Court Apartments complex on South Marshall Street.
He was charged with a weapons violation and recklessly endangering another person.
Drum said Rodriguez-Reyes posted $5,000 bail and was released until the start of his court case. A hearing in that case was scheduled for Monday.
Drum expects a bench warrant for Rodriguez-Reyes' arrest to be issued this week because he failed to show for the hearing.
Although he is a native of Dominican Republic, Rodriguez-Reyes has been living in the Lancaster area for some time, Drum said
"We believe he is still in the Lancaster area," he said.
Anyone with information on Rodriguez-Reyes' whereabouts is asked to call Lancaster County Sheriff's Office at 390-7730 or Lehigh County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-426-8477.
A reward of up to $2,000 is being offered for information that leads to his arrest.
