A Florida man faces a DUI manslaughter charge alongside a vehicular homicide count after a crash on South Military Trail in Greenacres that killed his eight-year-old daughter, Zoe, and injured his two other children. According to NBC 6 South Florida, Palm Beach County jail records confirm Leiniz was arrested on Sunday and charged with both offences.
Leiniz, a former youth pastor and ministry director at New Covenant Church, was driving three children in an Audi Q7 SUV when he told police he ‘swerved’ to avoid a collision with another vehicle. The SUV instead struck a concrete power pole with such force that the engine compartment caught fire, burning the windshield and dashboard, according to WPBF 25.
Zoe died at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach approximately one hour after the crash. Her two sisters, aged 12 and 6, were also hospitalised with injuries of their own, according to The Boca Raton Tribune.
What the Data Recorder and Blood Tests Showed
Investigators examined the SUV’s event data recorder after the crash. According to WPTV, citing court documents, the recorder captured the vehicle travelling at 104 mph in a 40 mph zone approximately five seconds before impact. The ABS braking system activated just two seconds before the crash.
Leiniz told police at the hospital that he ‘did not think he was speeding because he had kids in the car.’ A witness working security at a nearby nightclub corroborated his account that he was trying to avoid another vehicle, and surveillance footage also showed the SUV swerving before the collision. Police noted that one of the three children in the back seat had not been wearing a seat belt.
The blood-alcohol evidence is contested. Investigators used retrograde analysis to estimate Leiniz’s blood-alcohol concentration was between 0.097 and 0.104 at the time of the crash. A direct blood sample drawn at the hospital registered 0.083, just above Florida’s legal limit of 0.08. The prosecutor has relied on the retrograde estimate to support the impairment allegation; the defence disputes both figures.
Defense attorney Anthony Genova has challenged the speed evidence as well, arguing that the utility pole would not have remained standing had the SUV genuinely been travelling at 104 mph. He has also contended that the blood sample may have been contaminated by alcohol used to clean Leiniz’s skin before the draw, which he says undermines the blood-test reading.
DUI Manslaughter Charge and Bond Conditions
A judge set Leiniz’s bond at $150,000, below the $200,000 requested by the prosecution, according to CBS 12. As a condition of release, Leiniz is prohibited from driving and from consuming alcohol or non-prescribed drugs while the case is pending.
WPTV reports that Leiniz has been surviving on limited Social Security survivor benefits for his children and on GoFundMe donations linked to both Zoe’s death and the death of his wife the previous year. The DUI manslaughter charge carries serious exposure under Florida law; conviction can result in a mandatory minimum prison term where the victim is a minor.
Whether the retrograde BAC estimate or the lower direct-test figure prevails at trial may prove central to the manslaughter count. The defence’s pole-damage argument, if admitted, could similarly cut against the prosecution’s speed narrative. Subject to any pre-trial rulings on the admissibility of the event data recorder evidence and the blood-alcohol methodology, the case is expected to proceed in Palm Beach County circuit court.
