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On January 7, 2020, Trooper Deryck Lewis with the Florida Highway Patrol conducted a window tint traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Elizabeth Espinoza. The 27-year-old Espinoza told Lewis that she was on her way back from a trip to Texas — where, unfortunately, she had lost her driver's license. As Espinoza wrote down her information for Lewis, the trooper confirmed his suspicion with a tint meter: the windows were unlawfully dark.
But that wasn't all the trooper was after. Trooper Chris Nottingham arrived on scene with his K9 partner "Flip," for a free-air sniff around Ms. Espinoza's vehicle. Flip alerted, and Sergeant Joshua Malloy and Trooper Eric Schaub arrived on scene to assist in the vehicle search. While the search was underway, Espinoza utilized her cell phone to make a number of phone calls.
During those calls, Espinoza was recorded stating in Spanish, "I'm on my way back. They're checking everything. They haven't found it yet, but they will. I'm not under arrest yet, but they're checking everything. I'm going to lose everything, everything. I'm not getting out of this one. They got the dog on me. They found it."
As if the 26 pounds of cocaine were not incriminating enough.
Espinoza was federally prosecuted, and was ultimately sentenced to 24 months in prison to be followed by 36 months supervised release. Espinoza was permitted to self-report to prison after January 1, 2021, a few months after her sentencing, however Espinoza got an earlier-than-planned involuntary check-in after she was arrested on December 5, 2020, for battering her live-in boyfriend, who is also the father of her children. Espinoza was out again by January 1, 2022... when she was once again arrested for domestic battery.