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Sajay Montoto, a Cuban mother residing in southwest Miami-Dade, broke her silence two months after losing her son Albert in a violent collision between two cranes, calling for justice while the alleged culprit remains free and the investigation yields no results.
Albert Montoto, 24 years old, died on February 16 at the intersection of 288th Street and Old Dixie Highway, in Leisure City, just two days after celebrating his birthday.
An unnamed wound
In an exclusive interview with Univision 23, Sajay described his pain with words that no language can fully capture.
"When you lose a father, you are an orphan. When you lose a husband, you are a widow. And when you lose a child, the pain is so immense that it cannot be named. I need someone to have mercy on us," said the mother.
Unanswered questions haunt her every day.
"How am I going to explain to my brother that no, he won't have any nephews? Or how can I explain to dad that no matter how much he looks at the parking lot, he will never arrive?" he wonders.
"I won't be able to go choose the suit for the day he gets married. And in the meantime, I had to go choose the clothes with which he would be buried," he reported to the mentioned outlet.
"You feel like two died that day."
In another interview, this time with Telemundo 51, Sajay described the moment when his world came to a halt.
"You feel like you're crumbling inside... you don’t even have the will to breathe because it hurts..." he said.
"You feel that on that day, two died: he died and you died too. The only thing left for you was to keep breathing, but you have to be strong, because you need to find a way to serve some kind of justice..." she added.
Albert's room remains untouched, as if the young man, passionate about sports, were to return at any moment. "Every day is a nightmare", summarized the mother.
What happened that day
According to the preliminary conclusions of the police, Albert was traveling as a passenger in a red tow truck driven by his brother-in-law, Jorge Sevilla, 30 years old, when the driver of a black tow truck failed to stop at a red light and collided directly with the passenger side.
The red crane flipped over several times before crashing into an electric pole, and Albert's body was found outside the vehicle, thrown out by the force of the impact. Jorge Sevilla has been in a coma since the day of the accident and has a young daughter.
The justice that does not arrive
"Knowing that an irresponsible person caused the accident and is out on the street is the hardest part... it weighs the most..." Sajay stated to Telemundo 51.
Albert's fiancé, Yahily Calderín, also spoke out: "I want justice... this is not an accident: taking a life is a decision, and that decision caused a death".
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office responded in a statement that "the evidence constitutes the determining factor" for a potential criminal charge. The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office Homicide Department, which is in charge of the investigation, did not respond to media inquiries.
Sajay doesn't understand the delay: "What I don't understand is that with so many cameras and so many videos, they're telling you to be patient and keep waiting...".
"I'm only asking for justice, for clarity, because I know nobody is going to bring my son back to me... But I said: if this is what I need to do to achieve justice for my son, then... here we go," the mother concluded.
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