Five months after the death of graffiti and tattoo artist Jonathan "Ynot" Corso, his friends and family have received an early Christmas present: the long-awaited arrest of the man behind the wheel of the vehicle that killed him.
Deerfield Beach's Reynaldo Rodriguez, 32, mowed down Corso on July 28 after a brawl outside of Club Eden in Davie. New Times published a feature story on the 21-year-old father's life and abrupt death, and the delay in criminal charges sparked outrage among fellow members of the Miami graffiti crew MSG Cartel.
From a State Attorney's Office press release:
At the end of the fight, witnesses told investigators, Rodriguez got into the Escalade and backed the vehicle into a small group of men. The impact knocked down Corso, who was then run over by the Cadillac's back tires. The back tires ran over Corso a second time when Rodriquez reversed direction and pulled the Cadillac forward, investigators learned.
Most notable is that last sentence, which, if true, seems to contradict Rodriguez's claim of self-defense. In September, when New Times spoke to two of the witnesses at the scene-- graffiti writers who asked not to be identified-- they also claimed that Rodriguez shifted gears in order to run over Corso's body again:
Then the man shifted the SUV into drive, Ynot's friends say, and ran over his unconscious body.
If this goes to trial, there's the matter of those witnesses, courtroom-averse graffiti writers, publicly identifying themselves to take the stand. This is going to get more interesting before it's over. But for Corso's loved ones, at least one painful and frustrating chapter has come to a close.
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