New Trial Ahead for Cape Coral Woman in Vehicular Homicide Case After a Judge Found the Other Driver's Plea Was Never Disclosed
Anastasiya Zadorozhna was convicted in August in a 2024 Pine Island Road death. A judge threw the verdict out in October - and her retrial could start as soon as this month.
Fort Myers - The retrial of a Cape Coral woman accused in a fatal 2024 crash could start as soon as sometime in November, less than a month after a judge ordered her first conviction set aside, the News-Press reported. A Lee County jury on Aug. 19 convicted Anastasiya Zadorozhna, 29, of vehicular homicide in the July 19, 2024 death of 52-year-old Alberto Almedo.
Lee Circuit Judge Bruce Kyle ordered a new trial on Oct. 19 after Zadorozhna's attorney, Rene Suarez, argued that the other driver in the case did not disclose a plea agreement before testifying. That driver, 23-year-old Chase Magruder of Cape Coral, had entered an open plea on Aug. 18 - putting his fate in the judge's hands - and pleaded no contest to one count of vehicular homicide. Lee Circuit Judge Robert Branning sentenced him as a youthful offender to one year in jail, followed by two years of community control and three years of probation.
The case began about 1:40 a.m. on July 19, 2024, when Cape Coral Police responded to a traffic crash with injuries at the 900 block of Northeast Pine Island Road. Prosecutors accused the two drivers of racing at 100-plus mph - an allegation the retrial will test again. After the State Attorney's Office approved arrest warrants on May 12, 2025, Zadorozhna surrendered at the Lee County Jail the following day; the U.S. Marshals Service detained Magruder on May 29 in Susquehanna Township, Pennsylvania, and extradited him to Lee County.
Zadorozhna is one of six defendants across as many cases scheduled Nov. 10 before Judge Branning to finalize the start date for their respective trials. Kyle, who presided over her first trial as a backup judge, is again listed as the backup judge for the retrial.
