SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio family says they are beyond frustrated that it took the San Antonio Police Department months to arrest an alleged hit-and-run suspect whom they not only knew very well, but whose poor decision resulted in a life of severe pain and suffering.
Up until Sunday morning, Oct. 25, the accused suspect, Jonathan Sarabia, had been walking free after police said he hit his ex-girlfriend’s parents trying to leave a confrontation with them.
In the early morning of March 2, the Herrera family’s lives changed abruptly for the worse, and recently, they decided to tell their side of the story because they said they have been desperate for justice.
Ashely Rodriguez, Sarabia’s ex-girlfriend, said it all started when he showed up to her job.
“At that time we had already been broken up for two months, but that day, he texted me wanting to talk,” Rodriguez said. “So, I was trying to set up a time to talk, but not that day. I knew he was more emotionally involved in that breakup, and I really didn’t want to lead him along or anything.
“I told him that I could meet him tomorrow. That night, I ended up accidentally locking my keys in my car when I was at work, so while I had some mechanics helping me to unlock my car, I texted him that I needed him to bring my spare car key with him when we meet tomorrow.”
She said that is when he allegedly showed up to her work.
“He walked right up to my car and unlocked the door and said, ‘I’m going to give you a ride home, and I am going to keep the car.’ I said, ‘You can’t keep the car because you haven’t paid anything on it for two years. That is why I kept the car after we broke up,’” she said. “He said, ‘Well, I opened your door, so.’”
Rodriguez said she did not want to make a scene.
“I went back into the main office of my work and just sat there for about 10 minutes, but I noticed he wasn’t leaving,” she said. “So I thought, ‘Maybe he just wants to talk, so just hear him out, and hopefully that will be the end of it.’”
She said she got in the car, and on the ride to her family’s house, he allegedly talked about their breakup and a second chance.
“We were in the driveway, and at that point, Mom texted me, ‘Hey, are you OK?’ I didn’t want to respond because I knew my parents would probably come outside because they were worried, but I texted back, ‘I’m OK. Jon is here. He’s trying to take the car, but don’t worry. We are talking. I’m good. Stay inside.’”
That’s when her parents, Joel and Susie Herrera, said their parental instincts kicked in.
“I came outside and saw her ex wanted to take the car, and I said, ‘What gives you the right to take her car?’ He just gave me this ‘F you’ look,” Susie Herrera said.
The couple said they’d known Sarabia for four years and treated him like a son, which is why they were shocked when everything began to unfold.
“I walked up,” Joel Herrera, her dad, said. “I said, ‘What’s going on, mijo?’ I looked at him and the gear shift and the keys. At that point, I was leaning in, and he was looking up at me. I told him just to take the keys out, not thinking of what he was going to do.”
In the released surveillance video the family handed over, you could hear the couple scream for Sarabia to stop before the car backed out, hitting Rodriguez and Joel, and running over Susie.
Rodriguez said she broke her wrist as she was hit in the back by the car door and sent flying into the street.
Joel said his foot was nearly severed, hanging on by flesh.
Sadly, Susie got the worst of it.
“He ran her over,” Joel said as he got emotional. “Broke her legs, punctured her spleen, liver, and lung, and broke all of her ribs. She died there.”
The family said that once on the way to the hospital and twice while in the ICU, the doctors said Susie’s heart had stopped, and she had to be resuscitated.
“All I remember is falling back and blacking out,” Susie said. “I have a big gash on my head, and brain bleeds, but that is all I remember,” she said as she began to weep. “Every time that memory comes back to my head, I pray to God to take it away. It is so hard not to think about it. He ruined my life. He ruined our lives!”
“She had a trach and tubes coming out of everywhere,” Joel said. “My foot had to be completely reconstructed. I saw everything and was in so much pain. My foot was just hanging there. I told the doctors just to chop it off; it was so bad, but they saved my foot. The doctor told me, though, ‘If you break your foot in any way, we will have to amputate it.’ Now that is my biggest fear.”
The couple spent several weeks in the hospital and months afterward in physical therapy.
Sadly, Joel lost his job, and they fell into financial problems, which also added to Joel’s PTSD.
After months without any communication from their SAPD detective about where their case stood, the family finally reached out to KSAT’s Japhanie Gray for answers in August.
Multiple emails back and forth with SAPD and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office seemed to go nowhere until it was finally discovered that police had not made any arrests in this traumatic hit-and-run case.
“He was walking free, living his life, while we were going through hell,” Susie said. “I think it was you calling them that pushed them to call us. You bugging them the way you did. We wouldn’t have been having this conversation if you didn’t stay on them. The police know they fumbled.”
“When I spoke to the detective months ago after you had reached out to them, he called us,” Joel said. “He said, ‘I thought I submitted the report, but I only hit save. I have just sent the report off now.’ Then the DA called a couple of weeks ago and basically said the case just hit their desk and they had no idea about our side of the story because no one had tried to reach us.
Joel said nothing started moving until they reached out to KSAT.
“It seems like they are trying to clean up this mess as far as why it took so long for us to get justice. It took too long. SAPD took too long,” Joel said. “Nobody was helping. Nobody was giving us justice. They dropped the ball. ”
As of right now, Sarabia is facing two counts of collision causing serious bodily injury and one count of collision causing injury.
The family is hoping, because Susie nearly lost her life multiple times, that those charges get upgraded.
“We want to see the DA throw the book at him,” Joel said. “We want at least 25-50 years. The max penalty on this. He left us to die out there. I just can’t believe he was out running around living his life.”
“Shame on you. Shame on you for what you did to us and not thinking,” Susie said with words directed at Sarabia. “You should not be able to hurt people and get away with it. You need to talk to God.”
“You will pay,” Joel said. “There are so many things I want to say right now, but I am going to leave it in God’s hands. You have to pay. You have to answer for this.”
KSAT will continue to follow through to find out why it took police so long to make an arrest in this case, and why it took KSAT to get involved for any real communication to happen between law enforcement, the DA, and the Herrera family.
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