Nearly one year after the death of a beloved woman, a man accused of driving under the influence and killing her came face-to-face with her grieving mother in court on Friday.
Just moments before 21-year-old Dayron Ramirez-Mesa learned his sentence, the mother of 40-year-old victim Dayana Abreua Perez offered her forgiveness.
“I hope what happened is a lesson for you,” she said through a Spanish translator while clutching a picture of her daughter. “I do forgive you.”
The fatal incident occurred in December 2025 in Miami-Dade’s Kendall neighborhood.
Investigators say Ramirez-Mesa was driving drunk behind the wheel of a Tesla Cybertruck just after 8 a.m. near Southwest 122nd Avenue and 56th Street.
The man reportedly sped through a red light at 100 mph in a 40 mph zone, striking and killing Perez.
“No sentence can undo what you did,” Mari Elyse Diaz, a cousin of the deceased, said. “One day, you’ll go home, but Dayana will never come home, and that is a reality you created.”
Despite Diaz’s pain, she chose to forgive Ramirez-Mesa, too.
“You destroyed our family, but I don’t hold hatred in my heart towards you as I forgive you,” said Diaz. “But forgiveness does not erase what you did. You made a series of choices that killed Dayana.”
Ramirez-Mesa addressed the victim’s family directly on Friday, expressing his regret.
“I wouldn’t have ever wanted for that accident to happen for the life of Dayana,” he said through a Spanish translator.
A judge sentenced Ramirez-Mesa to 6.5 years in state prison followed by 8.5 years on probation.
Ramirez-Mesa’s defense attorney said his client and his family are affected by the crash as well.
“My client, I can tell you this is eating him alive, and his family too,” said Ramirez-Mesa’s defense attorney. “They’re two good families that were ruined by this.”
The judge also revoked Ramirez-Mesa’s driver’s license and ordered him to pay $200 to a victim’s compensation fund yearly on the anniversary of Perez’s death.
