Man charged with her DWI-related death set for pre-trial hearing this week

Sheriff’s female dispatcher: RIP

EDINBURG - The 20-year-old man charged with the DWI-related death of 29-year-old Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Dispatcher Sandra Coronado last December is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing this Thursday, May 23 in the 275th state District Court (Judge Marla Cuellar presiding).

The horrific crash occurred in the early Sunday morning hours of Dec. 9, 2018, at approximately 6 a.m., on Expressway 281 near the Bert Ogden Arena. The victim was on her way to work at the sheriff’s office, headed north, when Orlando Zuniga Rodriguez, driving from east to west on Alberta Road at a high rate of speed, blew through a stop sign at the frontage road intersection, crossed the frontage road, the grass strip next, and then it was onto the expressw a y itself where Rodriguez allegedly broadsided Coronado’s 2016 Buick SUV, ramming it into the concrete median barrier, which resulted in her death, according to the five-count indictment handed down against him, dated March 5, 2019.

The five felony counts include the death of Sandra Coronado and the injury inflicted on Rodriguez’s male passenger, who survived the crash. According to the indictment, Rodriguez was drunk at the time of the fatal collision and may have also introduced more drugs into his bloodstream before the crash. Two other felony counts charge him with fleeing the scene of the crash.

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