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Prosecutors work to keep fatal hit-and-run day care suspect in jail

ORLANDO, Fla. — Prosecutors are working to keep the man accused of causing a deadly hit-and-run crash at a day care center from getting out of jail.

Robert Corchado faced a judge Friday after turning himself in at the Orange County Jail Thursday.

The state wants Corchado's $100,000 bail to be revoked because it believes he is a flight risk.

The judge will give the state until Monday to file a pretrial detention motion, and that's when prosecutors intend to call witnesses to show Corchado is planning to take off if he gets out of jail.

Corchado will stay in jail until then.

"We have information that he was planning to leave the country," the prosecutor said.

A Florida Highway Patrol officer will testify on Monday about several tips FHP received about Corchado's plans to leave the country, possibly to go to Puerto Rico, where neighbors said his family originally came from.

WFTV learned Corchado’s bond from another alleged hit-and-run in Seminole County in December has been revoked, however.

That means even if an Orange County judge rejects the prosecutor’s arguments that Corchado was planning to leave the country if he got out of jail, he would be transferred straight to the Seminole County Jail, where he’d stay.

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News Conference: FHP announces Robert Corchado's arrest

Channel 9’s Kathi Belich went to Corchado’s mother’s house to see if she would talk about her son, but no one answered the door.

A young man who answered the phone at the home would not comment.

WFTV learned Corchado might have just left his mother’s house before troopers said he rammed a car on Goldenrod Road, sending it into the KinderCare day care center.

The prosecutor has not yet filed the motion for Monday’s hearing.

If Corchado  bonds out, the judge said he does not want him operating a vehicle.

WFTV found out that a bail bondsman and Corchado were communicating while he was on the run.

Lily Quintus, 4, died after a car crashed into the KinderCare on Goldenrod Road near University Boulevard on Wednesday.

Authorities said Corchado, 28, was driving a Dodge Durango that struck the car, causing it to crash through the wall of the KinderCare. Corchado then fled the scene, they said.

Troopers said Corchado was charged with leaving the scene of a traffic crash involving death and leaving the scene of a traffic crash involving serious bodily injury.

Corchado's arrest affidavit shows when someone nearby questioned Corchado about the missing bumper on his Durango after he ditched it shortly after the crash, Corchado said, "Don't worry about it," and took off with someone else.

Officials said numerous digital billboards went up in the area in an attempt to garner more tips, but Corchado turned himself in a short time later.

Bail bondsman Juan Tomlinson told Channel 9 that Corchado contacted him early Thursday morning.

"He wanted to turn himself in and that he didn't want to run from whatever the accusations might have been," said Tomlinson.

Tomlinson said Corchado was sad and distraught by the accident.

On Friday, a friend of Corchado's told WFTV Corchado did not know that the crash caused the death of a child and serious injuries to more than a dozen others.

The friend said Corchado told her he was scared, but we soon as he found out a girl just a little younger than his own daughter had been killed, he decided to turn himself in.

FHP said Thursday Corchado is a member of the Latin Kings gang and that he may have been getting help from other gang members.

"They need to be careful of what they're doing, and they need to come forward and help us, because if not, you're an accessory and if we find you're an accessory, we will prosecute you," said Maj. Cynthia Williams, of the Florida Highway Patrol.

About a week ago, Corchado was ticketed for careless driving, Channel 9 learned. And WFTV investigative reporter Christopher Heath learned Corchado was involved in another hit-and-run in December that happened near another day care center.

Records show he was then arrested in Orange County and spent three years behind bars after being convicted of trafficking in cocaine.

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