Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Pizza Delivery Driver Stabs Pregnant Woman Over Tip: Cops

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A Florida pizza delivery driver ends up in handcuffs after she's accused of stabbing a pregnant woman 14 times over a tip. I have the shocking details out of Florida. This is a Law & Crime Legal Alert. Did you know that children are being diagnosed with serious conditions like type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease? And research is potentially linking ultra-processed foods to these outcomes. Morgan & Morgan is stepping in to fight to hold food companies accountable.

Starting point is 00:00:41 With decades of experience fighting large corporations, they're ready to stand up for families who deserve justice. If your child is under the age of 21 and has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or fatty liver disease, visit www.forthepeople.com slash food to learn more. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. This case is unbelievable. It was supposed to be a simple night out for Melinda Irizarry, a staycation in Kissimmee, south of Orlando. But it ended very, very badly with her being stabbed. And a day or so later, a pizza delivery driver named Brianna Avello would be charged with the crime. On December 22nd, Irizarry, her boyfriend and their five-year-old daughter, went to the Riviera Motel to celebrate her boyfriend's birthday.

Starting point is 00:01:29 They ordered Marco's pizza. The bill was $33. Deputies say when the delivery driver, Brianna Avello, arrived, Irizarry handed over a $50 bill and asked for change. According to the police report, Avello said she didn't have any change, and this prompted Irizarry to dig through her wallet to find smaller bills. She eventually paid Avalo and gave her a $2 tip, and Avalo left without incident. But what detectives say happened next is almost beyond belief. I have the arrest warrant and I'm going to break it down for you. Later that night, around midnight, police say Avalo returned to the motel room, but this time she wasn't alone. Irizarry told police that Avalo

Starting point is 00:02:10 came back with a man and both were dressed in all black and wearing face masks. After forcing their way into the room, complete chaos ensued. The warrant says, the Hispanic male brandished a large silver revolver and first pointed it at Melinda and her daughter, then pointed it at her boyfriend Bobby and commanded him to go into the bathroom. The female suspect began rummaging through all their stuff and began breaking into Melinda's property. The female suspect began dumping out Melinda's purse and broke and smashed her daughter's

Starting point is 00:02:43 Nintendo Switch. Irizarry said she noticed Avalo pull out a knife. And the horror of what happened next is unimaginable. According to the warrant, Melinda then turned her back on the female to shield her daughter. Once Melinda turned her back, she felt a hard strike to her lower back. Melinda thought the female punched her until she looked down and saw blood coming from her back back. Melinda thought the female punched her until she looked down and saw blood coming from her back. When Melinda picked up her phone, the female suspect grabbed it from her hand, smashed it onto the floor, and began striking her multiple times with the knife. Irizarry told police the suspect stopped striking her after the male suspect yelled that it was time to go. Police arrived later that evening, and Irizarry was

Starting point is 00:03:25 taken to a hospital where she was treated for wounds to her chest, her arms, legs, and stomach. It was discovered that she had been stabbed 14 times. The brutal attack left her with more than 200 staples to close her wounds, including a punctured leg and severed tendons in her knee. But while she was at the hospital, she was told some shocking news. Doctors confirmed what Irizarry didn't know until then. She was actually pregnant about a month along. Irizarry told police she was in fear for her life the night of the attack, believing that she was going to die. But now she had learned that it wasn't just her life that was at risk. Detectives later tracked down Avalo by first

Starting point is 00:04:05 reviewing surveillance footage from outside the motel. They spotted the suspect arriving in a red Toyota Camry and matching the physical description provided by Irizarry. Detectives then spoke with the manager of Marco's Pizza. He told them Brianna Avalo was the driver who delivered the pizza and that she drives a red Toyota Camry. Avalo was then arrested and charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping, home invasion with a firearm and attempted murder with a weapon. But that attempted murder charge was later upgraded to premeditated murder. During her first court appearance, the state made a clear request that Avalo should not be granted bail. This is a punishable by life offense. There should be no bond set, and it should not be set for a pretrial detention hearing.

Starting point is 00:04:48 And while the judge agreed to set a $55,000 bond for her other charges, no bond was set for that attempted murder charge, according to records. Now, it's hard to understand what could have pushed a person to commit such a violent act. Irizarry told TV station WSVN that she believes this was motivated by more than just money. As for Irizarry, her recovery has just begun. After undergoing surgeries, doctors say she will have to learn how to walk again. But it's not just the physical recovery that will be difficult.

Starting point is 00:05:18 The emotional scars of what happened to her and her daughter will last a lifetime. As for the man who was with Avalo during the attack, he's still on the run. The sheriff says they're working to track him down. I want to bring in Anthony Rickman. He is a defense attorney based in the Tampa area. So, Anthony, your first thoughts upon reading the complaint in this case? I mean, it's kind of unbelievable. Yeah, it really is. I mean, to think that this woman, this delivery driver, would go back and stab a woman in front of her child 14 times, come back with an armed masked assailant to rob her of her belongings and possessions over a $2 tip. It's crazy. But,

Starting point is 00:05:58 you know, in this world that we live in, in the world that I live in, the criminal defense world, it's something we see often. And in this particular case, you know, this defendant, now this now defendant, had the opportunity to see what was in that bedroom, had the opportunity to know that the victim had money, had the opportunity to know that the victim was alone with her child, her husband, and took advantage of these opportunities

Starting point is 00:06:20 to come in and commit a home invasion robbery that resulted in this woman being stabbed 14 times. You know, what's so stunning to me is the fact that you hear about pizza delivery drivers being targeted. You know, you would think it might be the other way around. But no, this woman, Brianna Avello, is accused of then going back. Tip wasn't good enough, apparently, according to what the deputies are saying there in Osceola County. And they do this kind of stick up. And then I just, the fact that it escalates to the level of a stabbing and stabbing this woman, this poor woman 14 times, it's unbelievable to me. And then there's a small child there as well.

Starting point is 00:07:06 And then to add insult to injury, Melinda Irizarry finds out at the hospital that she's a few weeks pregnant. I mean, is there a possibility because of that, that there could be increased penalties or an increased charge having to do with this crime when the prosecutors or the state attorney's office kind of reviews the case. Well, in looking at the facts of the case, the defendant didn't know that the victim was pregnant at the time. So it's not going to be some sort of aggravated battery on a pregnant woman because that requires the defendant to know that she was pregnant. But when you look at the case itself, she's looking at life in prison. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Starting point is 00:07:45 The home invasion robbery with the weapon, the burglary with assault and battery causing great public harm, the attempted premeditated murder, those are all life felonies. And she, as defendant, is looking at life in prison. And when you mentioned working in reverse, we see Uber drivers often the targets. We see delivery drivers often targets. And like you said, in this case, it's really the reverse. It's a delivery driver. It's an Uber driver. It's someone providing a service to us that we trust that company. We trust them to vet their employees. We trust their employees to not be criminals. And really, it's happened in reverse.

Starting point is 00:08:19 And really, it should be a wake-up call for people who hear the story that, you know, when you when someone comes to your door, don't trust that, you know, they're good, they're good, that they're good, they have good intentions. Because what we see in this story is, is somebody with very bad intentions. We saw that she was extremely upset that she didn't get a over $20 tip for giving that first delivery, that she shook her head, she was angry that she only got a two dollar tip we know that the victim let her guard down by letting this defendant stand at the door looking into the room seeing whatever was inside and we know when they came back they said you know what we're here for and we're going to get it and take it ourselves and now we have a circumstance where this woman is lucky to be alive her unborn child is lucky to be alive because we have a defendant who acted in the manner she did and to stab somebody. I mean, there's one thing between shooting somebody,

Starting point is 00:09:10 but when you stab somebody that amount of times, it really shows the vitriol. It shows the aggression. It shows the anger because it takes a lot to put a knife in a person once, but 14 times is extreme. And this woman is going to be punished. Now, the way that she could help herself is cooperating with the government. Cause we know that she was with somebody else and that other person hasn't been caught yet, so most likely they're trying to get her to talk about who this other person was and the other thing is we don't know if this is her first rodeo. I mean, it takes a person to drive drunk close to 200 times before they get the first DUI.

Starting point is 00:09:43 Is this the first time her and this person have done something like this? So I'll be sure law enforcement is looking into her, looking into her background, seeing if there's unsolved crimes or other issues, to see who her potential accomplice is or if she's involved in any other criminal activity. Well, and, you know, you mentioned earlier

Starting point is 00:09:59 that the defendant didn't know that the victim was pregnant. The victim didn't even know she was pregnant. She found out when she was at the hospital that she was a few weeks along. So that kind of added a whole other dimension to this. So you had said earlier, you know, this is something you work in the criminal defense world. I cover cases like this. But, you know, what shocked me was the fact that, you know, the pizza delivery driver is

Starting point is 00:10:25 the accused in this case. I mean, a lot of times you hear about those people being targeted, you know, whatever type of delivery service they work for. And so I guess I just find it very stunning that somebody would do this. She then gets caught. You know, the police catch up with her. It didn't take long. It doesn't sound like that she went to great lengths to hide her identity. No. No. And the way law enforcement conducted their investigation, at the end of the day, all they had to do was go back and look at surveillance. They saw the vehicle showing up with her delivering the pizza. They then see that same vehicle showing up an hour later. They see her wearing the exact same capri pants that she had worn when she walked in to deliver

Starting point is 00:11:10 the pizza. So really, she made it very easy for law enforcement to locate her and find her. And despite the fact they wore masks, her stature, her appearance was the same the first time she showed up to when she was seen leaving or running from the victim's hotel room after the robbery occurred. So in reality, really law enforcement had to go back and look at surveillance video and show that she was there at the beginning, she was there when she left, and she was there with somebody else. And ultimately, this can be a pretty easy case of the garment of proof at the end of the day. When you look at all the facts and circumstances, when you look at the horrendous nature of how she stabbed this woman 14 times,

Starting point is 00:11:49 I mean, it doesn't even talk about the other victim in this case, her husband, who was put at gunpoint in a bathroom, locked in a bathroom while his significant other is being stabbed. And the daughter is standing right there with her. And then you got to think about the daughter, how traumatized she's going to be potentially for the rest of her life, knowing that her mother was shielding her and took the brunt of the attack or all the attack to protect her own daughter. It really is a horrendous case, a terrific case. I anticipate the state of Florida prosecuting this woman to the fullest.

Starting point is 00:12:19 And the best way she can help herself is by cooperating against that other person who hasn't yet been identified. Yeah. Even if she cooperates, though, I mean, maybe they'll raise some mental health issues in this. I don't know. But even if she cooperates, I would think the state attorney would pretty much make an example of this case. I mean, you stabbed you stabbed a woman. You're accused of stabbing a woman 14 times over a tip and doing it, as you mentioned, in front of a child and then locking the boyfriend in the bathroom. I mean, it's just, it's nuts. No, without a doubt. There's cooperation cases where a defendant walks in, she cooperates and they get a big break. They get charges dropped or reduced. If she cooperates, she's cooperating to save her life, to avoid spending the rest of her life in prison, as opposed to maybe 25 years.

Starting point is 00:13:07 This is not a case where the state's going to give her some sort of sweetheart deal because she cooperates against the other person. Because for all intents and purposes, she's the mastermind. She's the one who's there delivering the pizza at the onset. She's the one who's there who most likely told this other person, hey, this lady's got money. She's in this apartment. Let's go commit this robbery. So really, she's agent zero. Regardless of her cooperation, they are going

Starting point is 00:13:30 to come down here extremely hard. And that's if they even need her cooperation. Because what law enforcement is doing, they're going through the apartment. They're looking for forensic evidence. They're looking for video evidence. They're going to retrace her path of travel to see if they can identify this other person who was with her with that firearm because he's looking at just the same as she's looking at is it accessory to attempted first-degree murder he's sure going to be charged with home invasion robbery with actual possession of that firearm which is a 10-year mandatory minimum up to life in prison so when and if they find this person he's going to be looking at the same thing she's looking at and ultimately believe

Starting point is 00:14:04 both of them once he is caught are going to be serving the rest of their life, if not a significant amount of their life in prison. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how it unfolds and how quickly they can track down this accomplice who remains on the run at the time of this recording. Anthony Rickman, thank you as always for coming on. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you.

Starting point is 00:14:28 That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Pizza Delivery Driver Stabs Pregnant Woman Over Tip: Cops

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