News and Investigations

On Monday, January 25, 2021, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested an 18-year-old from Orlando for his role in a July 2020 Davenport open house party that ended with four 16-year-olds being injured and another 16-year-old being criminally charged for DUI and hit-and-run.

Mateo Pinzon Penagos, a current student of Lake Nona High School, was arrested in Orlando on charges of Burglary with Damages over $1000 Dollars (F1), Criminal Use of Personal Identification (F3), and Allowing Minors Alcohol at an Open House Party (M2).

The open house party occurred on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in the Cypress Point gated community in Davenport.

Deputies responded to the neighborhood following noise complaints. As they arrived, teens from the party quickly began to disperse.

One of the teens, 16-year-old Ryan Colom of Winter Garden, began driving away in a Kia Stinger. His car struck four other 16-year-olds who were standing in a driveway. One of the victims was dragged under Colom’s car for about 450-feet, and she suffered permanent serious injury. Colom fled from the scene and was captured by deputies about eight miles away.

Colom was charged with DUI, DUI with Property Damage (2 counts), DUI with Bodily Injury (3 Counts), DUI with Serious Bodily Injury, Leaving the Scene of a Crash with Serious Bodily Injury, Leaving the Scene of a Crash with Bodily Injury (3 counts), Leaving the Scene of a Crash with Property Damage (2 Counts).

Additionally, damages in excess of two-thousand dollars were caused to the vacation home by party-goers.

Detectives then turned their attention toward finding the person who hosted the illegal open house party.

The home had been rented via the online website VRBO. Rental records showed that a Corpus Christi, Texas man was listed as the renter, but the investigation determined his personal information had been stolen, and the rental was secured using his illegally obtained information.

Detectives were able to track communications back to Penagos’ residence in Orlando.

The detectives were also able to locate witnesses who saw Penagos with the stolen personal identification and had first-hand knowledge that he was responsible for arranging the open house party.

“At the very least, open house parties are loud and disruptive to neighborhoods, and leave litter and damages behind. Many times, they get totally out of hand with large fights and shootings. In this particular case, four kids were injured, one of them severely. There were numerous victims in this case and our detectives worked carefully for six months to find the person responsible for creating what turned out to be a horrific evening.”- Grady Judd, Sheriff 

Mateo Pinzon Penagos was booked into the Orange County Jail.

Ryan Colom’s criminal trial is still pending.

Three of the four injured teens suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The fourth injured teen was seriously injured but is expected to survive. She will likely have more surgeries in her future.