Pastor Father Allegedly Hits 104 Mph Drunk And Crashes Into Pole Killing 8 Year Old Daughter Just Months After Her Mom Died Of Cancer 😱💔
Florida Youth Pastor Charged After Alleged 104-Mph Drunken Crash Kills 8-Year-Old Daughter Months After Mother’s Death
Joel Leiniz had already buried his wife. Almost exactly one year later, he buried his daughter. Now the 38-year-old former youth pastor faces vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter charges in connection with the crash that killed 8-year-old Zoe Alaya Leiniz on a January night in South Florida.
According to Palm Beach County investigators, the evening of January 17, 2026, began with a church concert. Leiniz left the event with his three daughters and headed toward a Mexican restaurant, Tacos Al Carbon. Shortly before 10 p.m., while driving south on Military Trail near West Palm Beach in a 2017 Audi Q7, the vehicle left the roadway and slammed into a concrete pole with such force that it burst into flames. Zoe was pronounced dead at the hospital less than an hour later. Her two sisters and their father survived with injuries.
The vehicle’s event data recorder told a story that contradicted Leiniz’s initial account to deputies. Five seconds before impact, the Audi was traveling at 104 miles per hour in a 40-mph zone. Investigators said he appeared to apply the brakes only two seconds before the collision. Leiniz told police he had swerved to avoid another vehicle that suddenly appeared in his path and that he would never have been speeding with his children in the car. The data and physical evidence, authorities said, painted a different picture.
Blood testing at the hospital showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.083, just over Florida’s legal limit of 0.08. Further analysis led investigators to conclude his level at the time of the crash was likely higher, between approximately 0.097 and 0.104. The combination of extreme speed and alcohol impairment formed the foundation of the charges filed months later.
The arrest on July 19 came after a lengthy investigation. Leiniz was taken into custody and later appeared in court, where a judge set bond at $150,000. As a condition of release, he was ordered to have no contact with his two surviving daughters while the case proceeds. His attorney, Anthony Genova, argued for a manageable bond by emphasizing the family’s prior devastation. Less than a year before the crash, Leiniz’s wife, Sasha Christine Leiniz, had died of metastatic breast cancer. She was his high school sweetheart and the mother of all three girls. In the aftermath of her death, Leiniz left full-time work to care for the children, relying on Social Security survivor benefits, help from his parents and sister, and community support.
The timeline is almost unbearable in its compression. Sasha died in late January 2025. The family marked the approach of that first anniversary while still raw from her long illness. Then, on January 17, 2026—days before the anniversary—the crash claimed Zoe. What had been a household already reshaped by cancer became one permanently altered by a single violent impact on Military Trail.
Neighbors and church associates have described a man who had been open about the weight of single parenthood after his wife’s death. The GoFundMe page created in the days after the crash spoke of a family trying to heal physically and emotionally while grieving the loss of Zoe. Medical bills, funeral costs, and the ordinary expenses of raising two remaining children piled onto an already strained situation. The fundraiser framed the tragedy in spiritual terms, asking for prayers and practical help for a father now navigating an unimaginable new reality.
Yet the criminal case moves forward on a different track. Prosecutors allege that on the night of the crash Leiniz chose to drive while impaired and at a speed more than 60 miles per hour above the posted limit with three children in the vehicle. One of those children did not survive. The surviving sisters, identified in various reports as Esperanza and Izabel, were treated for injuries and released. Their father’s legal jeopardy now includes the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
Leiniz has pleaded not guilty. His defense is expected to challenge aspects of the speed data, the alcohol calculations, and the circumstances of the alleged swerve. The affidavit makes clear that investigators believe the physical evidence from the event data recorder and toxicology results outweigh his statements that night. Surveillance video reportedly captured the vehicle’s path in the moments before it left the roadway, adding another layer of documentation for the prosecution.
The location of the crash—South Military Trail near the Palm Springs area and close to John I. Leonard High School—is a busy corridor that carries both local traffic and people moving between West Palm Beach and surrounding communities. A concrete pole became the final fixed object in a sequence that began with a church event and ended in fire and death. Emergency crews responded to multiple 911 calls. The intensity of the impact left the Audi’s windshield and dashboard burned. Zoe was rushed to St. Mary’s Medical Center but could not be saved.
For a man who had served as a youth pastor and ministry director, the public contrast is stark. The same community that once saw him in a position of spiritual guidance now watches as he faces the most serious criminal accusations of his life. The church itself has not issued detailed public statements in the available reports. Leiniz’s LinkedIn profile listed youth pastor work in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, a role that typically involves mentoring teenagers and participating in the life of a congregation. That chapter appears closed.
The surviving children now live with the dual absence of their mother and their sister, and with a court order that currently separates them from their father. Extended family members have stepped in. The financial pressure that Genova described in court—an unemployed widower depending on survivor benefits and relative support—has only intensified. Every ordinary milestone the girls reach will carry the shadow of the January night when their father’s vehicle left the road at more than 100 miles per hour.
Investigators took months to complete their work before making the arrest. The delay allowed for thorough analysis of the vehicle’s computer data, toxicology, and scene evidence. When the charges finally came, they landed on a family that had already endured two catastrophic losses in roughly twelve months. The legal process will now determine whether Leiniz’s actions that night meet the standards for vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter under Florida law.
Zoe Alaya Leiniz was eight years old. She had already lost her mother to cancer. On a January evening after a church concert, she climbed into the back of her father’s Audi with her sisters. Within a short time the vehicle was traveling at a recorded 104 miles per hour. Seconds later it struck a concrete pole and caught fire. The medical efforts that followed could not save her. Her father, the man who had been both caretaker and now defendant, was left to answer for the decisions that preceded the impact.
The case continues. Bond has been posted. Court dates lie ahead. The two remaining daughters live with the permanent absence of both their mother and their sister. And a former youth pastor faces the prospect of prison for the crash that claimed one more member of a family already marked by profound loss.