Man looking at 90 years in prison for injuring Pinecrest cop’s foot gets probation

Crime Miami-Dade County admin June 24, 2026 0 Comments

Man looking at 90 years in prison for injuring Pinecrest cop’s foot gets probation

A locksmith who was facing the possibility of decades in prison for injuring a Pinecrest officer’s foot and leading police on a chase is free on probation after a deal was struck in Miami-Dade court on Tuesday morning.

Adolfo Denis Jr.’s life has been on hold for a year, after what could have been a minor encounter with Pinecrest police last July 19 ballooned into a police shooting and a 20-mile pursuit.

Denis was part of a group of off-road vehicle riders who had stopped at a Mobil gas station at 10345 S. Dixie Highway in Pinecrest when police pulled up to see if they were causing trouble. Denis, in a vehicle known as a side-by-side, tried to pull away but grazed a police car and injured an officer as he sped off.

The officer fired nine shots at him and his two passengers as he raced off. No one was hit. They were chased by a pack of officers from multiple agencies, with a helicopter tracking them from above.

Denis, who was initially charged with attempted murder and a host of other crimes, accepted a plea deal Tuesday morning, pleading guilty to aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer. A convicted felon now, he can’t have a driver’s license for 10 years unless he gets approval for a “hardship” license to get to and from work. He must complete 100 hours of community service, pay the village of Pinecrest $839.34, and write “meaningful” letters of apology to Pinecrest Officer Andres Garcia, whose foot he injured, and to a Miami-Dade sheriff’s deputy whose car he hit during the chase. For two years, he’ll wear an electronic monitor. He’ll have to stay out of trouble for 10 years to avoid prison.

“It’s a long time,” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Tanya Brinkley told him after the deal was struck. “… Just make sure you can move forward and put this behind you.”

Officer Garcia declined to give a statement to police and was later cleared by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office for shooting at Denis and his passengers at a busy gas station next to gas pumps.

Another officer told investigators that their shift had just ended when they got the call about disruptive side-by-side riders.

A man had called 911 to say that the Mobil station at U.S. 1 near Southwest 104th Street was “taken over by a lot of bikers and quads, or low vehicles. They were going northbound on the bike lane. They almost hit me. I’m with my family in the car, and I was really scared. They stopped in front of my car, like, challenging me when I had a green light.”

The call-taker told him this was an “ongoing issue” and that she was glad he wasn’t hurt.

Garcia pulled up to the gas station near Denis’s vehicle, his police lights and sirens off.

Surveillance video showed the confusing scene. As Garcia opened his door to step out, Denis sped to leave, through the gap between the police car and gas pump. He miscalculated and hit Garcia’s car door and injured Garcia’s foot. Garcia suffered “slight swelling,” according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report.

Almost instantaneously, Garcia drew his weapon and fired nine shots at Denis’s departing vehicle. No one was struck.

“Shots fired, shots fired! I’m hurt!” Garcia said on the radio.

So many police responded, people called 911 worried there was a dangerous criminal on the loose.

Pinecrest Police Chief Jason Cohen said his agency’s review of the shooting is still pending. He said Garcia approved of prosecutor Andres Perez’s plea agreement, which “was a gift” because Denis was facing a lengthy sentence.

“Without Officer Garcia’s compassion, Mr. Denis’s outcome would have likely been much different. I hope Mr. Denis realizes this,” Cohen said in an email.

Denis’s attorney, Jude Faccidomo, said the plea agreement only came after his public records request unearthed text messages between Garcia’s union lawyer and the prosecutor, and to a member of the State Attorney’s Office shooting review panel — communications he said were improper. In two text messages, for example, the officer’s union lawyer referred to Denis as a “dirtbag.” Faccidomo said he had planned to file a motion to disqualify the office based on conflict of interest: Garcia was both a victim in Denis’s case, and the investigative target in the State Attorney’s Office review of the shooting.

“This plea is a compromise, but a compromise born of the flaws in the State’s case,” Faccidomo said in an email. “The improper communications secured through defense investigation revealed impropriety, questionable conduct, and an unwaivable conflict between the State and their victim officer — that is why this plea was reached and for no other reason.”

In a recorded interview reviewed by the Miami Herald, Denis, now 25, told police last July that he had hoped to become a cop and was waiting to hear from the police academy. He had a clean record.

Walking into the hearing in Miami on Tuesday, Denis was facing anywhere from seven to 90 years in prison, with felony charges of high-speed fleeing and eluding, two counts of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, and leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury. He also was charged with a misdemeanor for leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and was cited for improper operation of an ATV. An original charge of second-degree attempted murder had already been dropped.

In April, The McClatchy Company, publisher of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald, and NBCUniversal Media, operator of South Florida’s WTVJ-NBC 6 and Telemundo 51, intervened in the case to obtain the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s report, which the State Attorney’s Office had asked the judge to seal.

The report, released after a ruling by Judge Brinkley, revealed details about what happened, including the fact that responding officers thought Denis was part of a group of “25 to 30 males” who’d shot Garcia.

“This young man’s been under criminal prosecution, he’s been vilified in the press, and now it is very clear that the narrative that was pushed by law enforcement and ultimately the State Attorney’s Office is fiction,” Faccidomo said in court in April.

Denis told investigators in a recorded interview that he fled the gas station that Sunday night because he was scared.

“I’ve seen a lot of videos of them beating up people,” he said of police.

Even when he was shown a gas receipt from the Mobil on his credit card, though, Denis didn’t acknowledge to police what had happened. In fact, he said he didn’t remember going to the Mobil.

“I don’t really remember,” he said. “ … I don’t recall anything happening at that gas station.”

After a 20-mile, circuitous chase on local roads, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper eventually rammed his vehicle into Denis’s Can-Am BRP Maverick XRS in what’s known as a PIT maneuver — or Precision Immobilization Technique — to end the chase at Southwest 168th Street and Krome Avenue.

“They crashed into me,” Denis said in the recorded interview. “They drug me by my chain out the car, started punching me, starting putting their knuckles in my ears. … They started rubbing me like if I was a scrub pad on the dirt, they started punching me, they started kicking me. They sat on me. They were saying, ‘Stop resisting!’ but I wasn’t resisting.”

Denis declined to speak with the Herald on Tuesday.

Staff writer Ella Moore contributed to this report.