Party attendees drag body inside after man hit by van in driveway, FL cops say

A neighborhood party turned into a conspiracy when one attendee was killed and others tried hiding the crime by hauling him back to his house, according to investigators in Florida.

It happened before dawn Sunday, Sept 7, at the Willow Oak Mobile Home Park in Mulberry, and deputies quickly discerned the man had died someplace else and was “dragged inside his home and left there,” officials said.

“The PCSO received a 911 call reporting the 21-year-old man’s death. The caller (said) the man was dead inside his home,” the sheriff’s office said. “When deputies and detectives arrived they quickly realized that the victim’s injuries were consistent with being run over by a vehicle.”

Traffic homicide detectives were summoned and learned “a large party” was held outside a home in the park and “nearly everyone at the party was consuming alcohol.”

“A witness told detectives that the victim was lying down on the driveway. The witness saw 52-year-old Ponciano Cinto-Ramirez get into a van that was parked on the driveway, put it into reverse, and back over the victim,” the sheriff’s office said.

“People at the party yelled at Cinto-Ramirez that he had run over the man but Cinto-Ramirez continued to drive away, then parked outside lot #32 and went inside.”

Deputies went to the home on the lot and found six men from Guatemala who “refused to give deputies information or cooperate,” officials said. All six are in the country illegally and have now been placed on an ICE hold, the sheriff’s office said.

Ponciano Cinto-Ramirez was among the six men, officials said. He was charged with felony counts of leaving the scene of crash involving death, driving without a license causing death and resisting arrest, the sheriff’s office said.

The other five were charged with felony resisting arrest, and four are facing an additional charge of giving false information to law enforcement, officials said. One in the group is charged with having an altered firearm.

Mulberry is about a 35-mile drive east from Tampa.

This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 7:25 AM with the headline "Party attendees drag body inside after man hit by van in driveway, FL cops say."