A Leesburg driver and his passenger were jailed Tuesday after a hit-and-run crash involving a 12-year-old boy at a bus stop and a woman riding with them later reporting that she had been held against her will.
Lake County sheriff’s deputies responded to Thomas Boat Landing Road in Umatilla around 7:40 a.m. after receiving reports of the hit-and-run crash. When they arrived, they discovered that the child, Preston Sandoval, of Leesburg, was left to suffer from his injuries.
A witness told a Florida Highway Patrol officer that a 2015 silver Chevrolet Malibu, later determined to be driven by 19-year-old Christian Ames Messick, had run a stop sign, left the roadway and struck Sandoval. The witness said the youngster was lodged under the vehicle and drug for a short distance before it sped away, a FHP report states, adding that Sandoval was airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children with serious injuries.
Meanwhile, Lake County deputies launched a search for the vehicle involved in the crash, which had been spotted in Umatilla heading toward Paisley. It was soon located abandoned off County Road 42 in Paisley, a sheriff’s office report says.
Multiple deputies and several K-9 units responded and conducted a track of the suspects. Sgt. Yancy Issacs and his K-9 partner, Zeus, tracked to a recreational vehicle whose owner said it shouldn’t be occupied. Once Zeus announced his presence, Messick and 24-year-old Mariano Keano Taclay, of Eustis, exited the RV.
A short time later, a female came out and it was soon determined that she had been held against her will. She also told deputies that Messick and Taclay had thrown a bag containing several firearms into a nearby lake, the sheriff’s office report says.
Both men were taken into custody and transported to the Lake County Jail. Messick was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury and driving without a valid license. He and Taclay also were charged with burglary and false imprisonment, with the possibility of other charges to follow regarding the crash and the firearms that were recovered.
