Deputy Injured In New Year’s Hit & Run Crash

By Matt Wiley

A suspect is in custody, after fleeing a hit-and-run accident that injured a Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) deputy New Year’s morning.

According to PCSO and the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), 25-year-old Bertin Jaimes, of Zephyrhills, was arrested by FHP troopers at 11:30 a.m. in Land O’Lakes, about seven hours after running into PCSO Dep. Darren Hill’s cruiser.

FHP reports that at 4:22 a.m., Jaimes was driving his red 2002 Ford F-150 eastbound on S.R. 54 near Loury Dr. in Wesley Chapel. At the same time, Hill, 29, a Wesley Chapel resident, was traveling westbound in a marked PCSO cruiser, when for unknown reasons, Jaimes crossed over the center line, resulting in a head-on collision.

Hill was seriously injured and trapped inside his cruiser, while Jaimes fled the scene on foot. FHP reports that Dep. Hill was airlifted to St. Joseph’s Hospital with two broken legs and a broken arm. PCSO Deputies searched the surrounding area with K-9 units, rendering portions of S.R. 54 closed for several hours.

“Thank God our deputy is alive after a horrific crash,” said Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco the day of the accident.

During the investigation, PCSO determined that Jaimes had left a party in Land O’Lakes prior to the accident and reports that three other people were arrested for obstruction in the incident, including Jaimes’ wife Gladys Patricia Soto, his brother Jose Carmen Jaimes and his sister-in-law Jazmin Sanchez-Aquirde. PCSO.

PCSO reports that Jaimes visited Sanchez-Aguire at her Zephyrhills home following the crash, before fleeing the area, which she lied about during interviews with deputies. Jose Jaimes received 17 calls from Bertin and even picked the suspect up and brought him back to the house at which the party was held, knowing that Bertin had fled the scene, all of which he lied about to deputies. Soto also admitted that she lied about knowing the whereabouts of Jaimes during the PCSO investigation

Bertin Jaimes remains in custody at the Land O’Lakes Detention Center without bail on charges of leaving the scene of an accident involving injuries, as well as driving with an invalid driver’s license. He also has a pending hold to keep him in custody from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).