A Florida woman accused of shooting dead a fellow gym member after a drunken night out is being released from jail on bond and will go to rehab.
Yvonne Serrano, 52, was jailed in November 2019 and is charged with manslaughter after she was arrested for the shooting death of 21-year-old Daniela Tabares.
She was scheduled to leave jail Friday and head to rehab for alcohol abuse after prosecutors portrayed the 52-year-old as a lying lush who has become drunkenly violent even with her own children.
Serrano was arrested and initially charged with Taberes’ murder after the younger woman was found dead in Serrano’s driveway in Coral Springs, hanging out of a car by her foot with a gunshot to her head.
Prosecutors say Serrano shot Taberes in the head, but she says she blacked out and doesn’t remember what happened.
Yvonne Serrano, 52 (left), is being released on bond to a rehab center more than six months after her arrest for the killing of fellow gym member Daniela Tabares, 21 (right)
Serrano’s charge was later reduced by the state to second-degree manslaughter, which is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Had Serrano been charged with and convicted of murder, she could have faced up to life in prison.
The sentence reduction paved the way for her to be released from jail on bond Friday.
She is also charged with tampering with physical evidence.
Her estranged husband Doug Serrano, who filed for divorce shortly after Taberes’ death, said he would be responsible for her accommodation should she be released before her trial.
According to The Sun Sentinel, a judge last week set Serrano’s bond at $20,000 and she was to remain in jail until Friday when she would leave to go to Gracious Care Recovery Solutions.
Serrano will have to wear a GPS ankle monitor and won’t be allowed to leave the rehab facility.
The suspect has claimed she blacked out on the night out and has no recollection of how she got home before waking up in Taberes’ car and finding her body.
Prosecutors, however, have painted Serrano as a violent drunk, with her husband telling them that she has attacked her four children and mother while drinking.
Serrano and Tabares knew each other through their gym, Training for Warriors Coral Springs. Pictured: Tabares celebrating her 21st birthday at the gym in May 2019
Serrano called 911 the next morning saying she found a dead woman in her driveway. At first she claimed she did not know Tabares, but later she changed her story
Assistant State Attorney Lanie Bandell told a judge in March that Doug Serrano had provided sworn testimony that by his wife’s fifth drink, there usually were episodes of physical assault.
Doug said he had witnessed an attack against one of their daughters.
He added that her blackouts were frequent.
Serrano has also been shown to have lied about how the body was found, initially telling police that she woke up inside her house before admitting she woke up in the car.
The Coral Spring home where Serrano allegedly committed the crime was put up for sale by her husband shortly after he filed for divorce a month following her arrest.
Family and friends of Tabares have spoken out against releasing Serrano on bond
Tabares’ loved ones have also been vocal in their opposition to Serrano’s release. In March, a group of 50 people staged a protest calling for keeping her in jail pending trial.
In interviews with the Sun Sentinel, fellow members at Serrano and Tabares’ gym, Training For Warriors, also described the suspect, a military wife and mother of grown children, as ‘intense’ and a ‘loner’ who did not fit into the tight-knit and supportive community of fitness enthusiasts.
On the evening of November 22, 2019, a large group of people from the gym, including Serrano and Tabares, had gone to Silverspot Cinema to watch the drama 21 Bridges, before they all headed to the World of Beer pub, an affidavit obtained by DailyMail.com said.
The pair were ‘conversing, laughing and drinking for several hours,’ the court document said.
A friend of Tabares’ told the Sun Sentinel she got a text from her at 1.25am saying: ‘I’m taking Yvonne home.’
Serrano and Tabares were filmed by surveillance cameras leaving the pub together and further footage showed them pulling into Serrano’s driveway at 2am.
At 5.55am on November 23, Tabares was found fatally on Serrano’s property.
Serrano called police to say there was a dead woman in front of her Coral Springs home. She initially claimed she did not know Tabares, but later admitted she did.
After watching a movie as a group on November 22, 2019, gym members, among them Serrano and Tabares, headed to the World of Beer pub (pictured)
Tabares was found dead in Serrano’s driveway in Coral Springs, Florida (pictured), hanging out of a car with a gunshot to her head on November 23
When detectives arrived later in the morning, Serrano told them she had left the house in the 1600 block of Northwest 100th Drive in Maplewood Isles to go to the gym but called the police ‘immediately’ upon finding the body.
She said she had ‘blacked out’ at World of Beer and had no idea how she got home when she woke up in her bed.
Serrano later reportedly changed her story, telling detectives that she woke up sitting in a passenger seat in Tabares’ car.
Investigators found she had recently washed a blood-stained tank top and deleted Ring video footage filmed on a smart doorbell, which earned her the extra charges of tampering with physical evidence.
Serrano has a concealed carry permit and owns three handguns. Two 9mm pistols and a .45 caliber one.
She also told police said she had taken her Sig Sauer P365 to the pub. The gun, which was in Serrano’s bedroom, fires 9mm rounds.
The shell casing outside Maya’s Nissan came from a 9mm round.
Blood was found on the Sig Sauer and its holster, reported Local10.
On her release, Serrano is not to come into contact with any members of Tabares’ family or witnesses from the gym.
Her next court date is scheduled for June 23.
She has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.