![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/untitled-2026-04-22t155426.063.jpeg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
18-year-old Jonathan Matos Morales booking photo (Credit: Manatee County Sheriff’s Office) <\/p>\n
MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – New details from a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report explain how a former Atlanta Braves minor league player was tied to a deadly crash on I-75 before parking the damaged car at the team’s ballpark.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
An arrest report states that 18-year-old Jonathan Matos Morales was driving a dark-colored Mustang that was “weaving in and out of traffic” on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
Troopers said the car cut off other drivers, tailgated, and frequently changed lanes at high speeds before hitting a Chevy Trailblazer.<\/p>\n
The impact forced the SUV into the path of a semi-truck driven by 34-year-old Stavan Albert Facey. The truck overturned across all southbound lanes, and Facey died at the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RELATED: Atlanta Braves turn in minor league player following deadly Florida crash<\/a><\/p>\n While Matos Morales claimed he stopped to check for damage, the report notes that witness video clearly contradicts his story.<\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n The report reveals that Atlanta Braves Vice President of Florida Operations Michael Dunn called police just after 7 p.m. that evening. He told authorities he was “99% sure” the car involved in the crash was parked at the team’s Venice facility.<\/p>\n Matos Morales, who lived in a dorm at the ballpark, later told a trooper he was headed to practice from his girlfriend’s home when the crash happened. He claimed he was “just trying to get over” to avoid hitting a car in front of him before moving to the right.<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Matos Morales faced a judge at the Manatee County Jail, where his attorney asked for a $50,000 bond, citing his low pay in the Braves’ farm system and lack of criminal history, according to FOX 13. \u00a0<\/a>However, the judge set the bond at $200,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n If he makes bond, Matos Morales must surrender his passport and remain under supervised release.<\/p>\n The Source: The information in this story was gathered from a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report, prior FOX 5 reporting and additional information from FOX 13 (linked above).\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida<\/a>Atlanta Braves<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article 18-year-old Jonathan Matos Morales booking photo (Credit: Manatee County Sheriff’s Office) MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – New details…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,4166,5,192,11168,610,4,169,609],"class_list":{"0":"post-681290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-braves","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-braves","10":"tag-atlantabraves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-crime-publicsafety","14":"tag-fl","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116450223301422027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}