Dominican Republic police reported a fatal car crash on Sept. 21, 2020, involving a Jeep driven by Oneil Cruz, a Pittsburgh Pirates prospect, and a motorcycle carrying three passengers, including Yohan Saba Mercado and two other young women. The victims' families were paid off by a fixer named Santo Caraballo to avoid lawsuits and prosecution, allowing Cruz's career to continue. According to the article, Cruz rear-ended the motorcycle on a desolate stretch of highway in the Dominican Republic at around 4 a.m., killing all three passengers and leaving two critically injured. The families' decision to accept payment was reportedly driven by their understanding that Cruz would be cleared as a suspect due to his wealth and influence.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-10,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Six years ago, Pittsburgh Pirates star prospect Oneil Cruz rear-ended a motorcycle, killing all three of its passengers and jeopardizing his career.
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Cruz → end → career
- Making It Disappear: Cruz’s parents brought in a fixer to pay off the victims’ families so they wouldn’t sue and wouldn’t demand that prosecutors pursue the case.
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prosecutors → make → case
- Behind the Scenes: In making the case go away, that fixer, Santo Caraballo, saved Cruz’s career and launched his own as one of the most powerful figures in Dominican baseball.
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fixer → make → baseball
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
Around 4 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2020, Luis David Saba arrived at a desolate stretch of highway along the southern coast of the Dominican Republic.
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Saba → arrive → Republic
Police and paramedics had left by then, taking with them a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a crumpled hood and the tangled remains of the cheap motorcycle it had smashed into.
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it → leave → motorcycle
Also gone were the motorcycle’s two critically injured passengers.
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passengers → go → ?
The only signs that an accident had occurred a few hours earlier were the blood and debris smeared across the asphalt and a pile of neatly placed branches.
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accident → occur → branches
Saba knew what to expect underneath that pile.
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Saba → know → pile
It was a Dominican custom to use anything on hand to shroud a body abandoned by paramedics.
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It → use → paramedics
Pushing away the branches, Saba saw shredded clothes, torn skin and long, curly hair forming a halo over a battered face.
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clothes → push → face
He covered the body of his 20-year-old younger brother, Yohan Saba Mercado, with a sheet.
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He → cover → sheet
In shock, he felt nothing but the need to get his brother out of the road.
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he → feel → road
Saba sat and waited for forensic investigators he was told were on their way.
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he → sit → way
Hours passed, the sun rose and traffic began to stream by them.
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traffic → pass → them
Finally, he gave up.
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he → give → ?
With the help of friends, he loaded his brother’s body into a van, and hours later it was at his mother’s house.
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it → load → house
Later that morning, two other families were experiencing similar horrors.
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families → experience → horrors
Deby Beato Charles, 20, and Daniela Perez Garcia, 19, had been riding on the back of Yohan’s motorcycle when the Jeep rear-ended them.
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Jeep → rid → them
When Deby’s older brother, Ruben, got to a nearby hospital, he was met by a doctor who handed him a wallet and bracelet.
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who → get → wallet
Deby had died of a severe head injury and blunt chest trauma.
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Deby → die → injury
At another hospital, Daniela’s uncle was ushered into a room where his niece lay.
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niece → usher → room
Her face was so swollen he didn’t recognize her.
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he → recognize → her
According to her death certificate, she had suffered injuries to her head, chest and hip and went into hypovolemic shock, in which the loss of bodily fluids causes a person’s organs to shut down.
uncertain
organs → accord → fluids
The families of Daniela and Yohan held funerals in their homes that afternoon.
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families → hold → homes
During the proceedings, word spread about who had been driving the Grand Cherokee.
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who → spread → Cherokee
Seemingly everyone in the area knew how much he received from his major league signing bonus five years earlier: $950,000.
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he → know → bonus
The families also knew what was going to happen next.
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what → know → ?
Yohan’s mother told me that after all the mourners left the house, a driver showed up holding out a phone.
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driver → tell → phone
On the line was Cruz’s mother offering condolences — and wanting to negotiate.
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mother → offer → condolences
Even though it has a population of just 32,000, Nizao has produced dozens of professional ballplayers, including three-time All-Star Ketel Marte and, most famously, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr., one of the best hitters in modern baseball and father of Vladimir Jr., the star first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays.
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Nizao → have → Jays
Looming over the main road into town is the Guerreros’ mansion.
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mansion → loom → town
Right below it, a giant 27 has been carved into the hill — the jersey number the two share.
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two → carve → hill
By 2020, Oneil Cruz Ureña looked poised to be among the best of Nizao’s ballplayers.
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Ureña → look → ballplayers
The Los Angeles Dodgers signed him when he was 16 and over 6 feet tall.
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he → sign → him
They traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who considered him their future shortstop.
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him → trade → Pirates
The statistics website FanGraphs ranked him as one of baseball’s top prospects, declaring that “there aren’t many who have a chance to be what this guy might.”
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guy → rank → chance
But the accident on a darkened road threatened to destroy that chance before Cruz even made it to the major leagues.
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Cruz → threaten → leagues
Police detained him at the scene.
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Police → detain → scene
In a court filing the following day, prosecutors said that they had opened an investigation “en contra del imputado,” “against the accused.”
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they → say → accused
…and 241 more, not listed.
