Should the charge be manslaughter? Premeditated murder? Or was she just doing what a woman has to do to keep her man in check?
A mother's hit-and-run death might have been the result of another woman's jealous rage. Courtney L. Antillon, 19, misunderstood when she saw her live-in boyfriend exchanging information Monday with a 35-year-old woman on South 24th Street, her mother said. Ana Rodriguez de Lopez-Cardenas was exchanging insurance information with Antillon's boyfriend after a fender-bender accident near 24th and E Streets.
When Antillon drove past and spotted the two outside La Michoacana, an ice cream parlor, she made a U-turn and drove toward them. Antillon has a volatile temper, said her mother and sister, and frequently worries that her boyfriend cheats on her. Her car nicked her boyfriend, Israel Francisco-Gonzalo, before slamming into Rodriguez. He suffered minor injuries. Rodriguez suffered massive head and internal injuries and died later that night at a hospital. Riding in Antillon's back seat was Ivan, the 2-year-old son she had with Francisco-Gonzalo.
Antillon made several frantic phone calls to her mother, Debra Perez, after speeding away from the scene, where Rodriguez lay dying in the street, her children by her side. "With her driving down 24th and seeing him talking to a girl, I assume she snapped," Perez said. Antillon, 19, is charged with manslaughter, failure to stop and render aid and second-degree assault. The assault charge is for the injury to Francisco-Gonzalo.
A Douglas County judge today set her bail at $1 million. She would have to pay $100,000, or 10 percent of her bail, to be released from the Douglas County
Correctional Center. Antillon's cousin Diana Dandridge, 23, was a passenger in the car and has been charged with being an accessory to a felony. Dandridge
is being held on $10,000 - or 10 percent of her $100,000 bail.
She denied trying to run down her boyfriend and said she drove away from the scene because she was scared and didn't know what to do. Rodriguez simply stepped out into the path of the traffic, Antillon said. After the car sped away, Rodriguez's children - Stephany, 13, and Joseph, 8 - rushed to their dying mother's side. "I remember hitting her," Antillon said. "I seen two people run to her. I didn't know they were her kids." A witness gave chase and was able to get the license plate number before returning to the scene in front of La Michoacana at 24th and E Streets.
Rest of the story (and video): http://omaha.com/article/20090626/NEWS01/706269894
When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=11915
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