A man who was arrested in Broward County in August has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a Lyft driver in Texas and forcing her to drive to South Florida, where he said he intended to kidnap a social media influencer in order to demand a multi-million dollar ransom.
Miguel Alejandro Pastran Hernandez, 24, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to kidnapping, carjacking and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime. He faces up to life in prison, federal prosecutors said in a news release Thursday afternoon.
It was shortly before 10:30 p.m. Aug. 16 when the victim, a woman working as a Lyft driver, picked up Pastran Hernandez in the Arlington, Texas, area, according to a factual proffer, the facts of the case agreed on by the defense and prosecutors. Pastran Hernandez had entered his drop-off location as a gas station that looked closed when they arrived.
Soon afterward, the woman said she heard a click and saw Pastran Hernandez holding what she thought was a gun. Investigators later determined it was an airsoft or BB gun, the factual proffer said.
She offered up her belongings, but Pastran Hernandez told her he would tie her up and put her in the back of her Honda. He told her to start driving to Florida and allowed her to drive as long as she went the speed limit and followed his orders, the factual proffer said.
During the trip to Florida, Pastran Hernandez found that the woman had an unloaded gun in her car. He found her ammunition, which she kept separately, loaded it and kept the gun on him throughout the kidnapping, the factual proffer said. They stopped at multiple gas stations, and he would take the car keys to prevent her from escaping.
Rideshare driver kidnapped at gunpoint in Texas and forced to drive to South Florida
He forced the woman to call her family about 11 a.m. the next day to tell them she was taking “a long work trip” so they would not question why she was gone. Pastran Hernandez himself drove the car sometimes, keeping the woman’s gun on him while she rested, the factual proffer said.
Pastran Hernandez and the woman arrived in Miami Beach on Aug. 18, where he “surveilled” the home of a social media influencer, who he told the woman he planned to also kidnap, or a relative of the influencer, for a $3 million ransom, according to the factual proffer.
On Aug. 19, Pastran Hernandez forced the Lyft driver to go to a dollar store in Hialeah in Miami-Dade County to buy supplies, the factual proffer said. The woman was in the bathroom when police officers arrived and Pastran Hernandez ran.
Officers found him a few hours later at a park in Hollywood with the woman’s loaded handgun in his bag, the factual proffer said. He had a backpack inside the victim’s car that had airsoft or BB guns, knives and kidnapping supplies.
Pastran Hernandez will be sentenced on Feb. 20, court records show.