MIAMI – A 23-year-old man who was arrested last week on accusations that he stole a woman’s SUV in Miami and then ran her over with it is facing another charge after police said he spat in the face of a corrections officer at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
According to a police report, Jonah Desaulniers, of Miami Beach, was being escorted by the officer in the prisoner intake area when Desaulniers became “physically aggressive and combative,” and then spat in the officer’s face.
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Desaulniers is now facing a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer in addition to first-degree murder.
The murder charge stems from the death of Mercedes Lopez, 71, who Miami police said was struck with her own Honda CR-V Thursday morning after Desaulniers stole it in the area of Southwest 27th Avenue and 22nd Terrace.
Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the arrest report, about five minutes later, Coral Gables police responded to a hit-and-run crash at the intersection of Miracle Mile and Salzedo Street where Desaulniers allegedly struck a pole and bollard. No one was injured in that incident, authorities said.
A short time later, a police officer spotted a brown Honda SUV with front-end damage in the area of Southwest 32nd Avenue and Dixie Highway that matched the description of the vehicle involved in both hit-and-runs, authorities said.
Police said Desaulniers got out of the vehicle and was detained at the scene.
Authorities said after being detained, he was transported to Larkin Community Hospital for medical treatment and was medically cleared and discharged shortly after.
Desaulniers provided a statement to detectives, but the statement was redacted from the publicly released report.