A man has admitted to the armed kidnapping of a rideshare driver, forcing a treacherous interstate journey from Texas to Florida. Miguel Alejandro Pastran Hernandez, 24, entered a guilty plea for the Aug. 16 incident where he commandeered a driver at gunpoint shortly after being picked up near Arlington, Texas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida reported.
The ordeal began when Pastran Hernandez signaled the click of a firearm after reaching a closed gas station destination; he then made the victim surrender personal belongings while threatening to constrain and sequester the driver in the back of the vehicle, instead, he directed the victim to drive to Florida, during that trip Pastran Hernandez used a mobile app to dodge law enforcement and claimed possession of additional guns.
Two days into their forced drive, Pastran Hernandez and the kidnapped driver arrived in Miami Beach, where he surveilled another potential victim, a social media influencer, for a planned ransom that could sum up to $3,000,000, he intended to kidnap Victim 2 or someone in Victim 2’s family, the victim revealed under duress, this followed a stop in Hialeah, Florida, where law enforcement intervention allowed the driver to escape when Pastran Hernandez fled on foot, as detailed by U.S. Attorney's Office.
Authorities later apprehended Pastran Hernandez in a park in Hollywood, Florida, discovering in his possession a loaded blue handgun that belonged to the victim, and numerous items in a backpack that included Airsoft or BB guns, knives, and tools potentially for the ransom plot, this evidence contributing to his upcoming sentencing dated for Feb. 20, 2025 where he faces life in prison on account of kidnapping, carjacking, and wielding a firearm in pursuit of violence following the principles of Project Safe Neighborhoods.
Chief Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga is scheduled to sentence Pastran Hernandez as the prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Hannah approaches its resolution; details on the case can be found on the District Court of the Southern District of Florida's website or the PACER system under case number 24-cr-20380.
