A minor league baseball player has been charged in a fatal hit-and-run collision after being turned in by the Atlanta Braves, the same club that signed him nine months earlier.
Jonathan Matos Morales, 18, is accused of fleeing the scene of a Monday-morning crash in Manatee County, Florida after allegedly colliding with another vehicle that subsequently slammed into a semi-truck. The truck driver, 34-year-old father-of-four Stavan Albert (Owen) Facey, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the 63-year-old man driving the SUV suffered minor injuries.
Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) released dashcam footage from another vehicle on Tuesday, showing a 2022 black Ford Mustang racing down I-75 in the moments before Monday’s 6:28am crash. After passing the semi-truck on the right shoulder, the Mustang cuts across to the left side of the highway where it is ultimately met with brake lights. When the driver attempted to cut back to the right, it collided with an SUV that slammed into the semi-truck, which flipped over onto its side.
The Mustang briefly paused behind the crashed semi-truck before speeding around the wreckage on the right side of the highway.
Later, after the FHP’s public pleas for help locating the Mustang and its driver, Braves staff noticed the suspected vehicle at the team’s spring training facility, CoolToday Park, in Venice.
‘The Atlanta Braves organization contacted the Florida Highway Patrol advising they may have found that vehicle within their complex,’ FHP spokesman Ken Watson told Tampa’s Fox 13. ‘Advising they felt 99.9-percent sure that they had the vehicle.
Jonathan Matos Morales, 18, is accused of fleeing the scene of a Monday-morning crash in Manatee County, Florida after allegedly colliding an SUV that slammed into a semi-truck
Stavan Albert (Owen) Facey (right), a truck driver and father of four, died at the scene
Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) released dashcam footage from another vehicle on Tuesday, showing a 2022 black Ford Mustang racing down I-75 in the moments before the 6am crash
‘We immediately dispatched troopers to the scene, made contact with the Braves legal staff, and we were able to establish that was in fact the vehicle we were looking for, and then promptly able to make an arrest of our suspected driver.’
The crash remains under investigation by the FHP.
Morales no longer appears to be with the Braves. The franchise has since released a statement describing him as a player who was ‘formerly signed’ to the team’s farm system.
‘Our organization is cooperating fully with authorities and will not have any further comment at this time,’ read the statement. ‘Our condolences go to the loved ones of all who were involved.’
Watson told Fox 13 that Morales was seen ‘weaving in and out of traffic’ before the crash. And given the speed of traffic, the weight of the semi-truck and the limited amount of time Facey had to react, the truck driver had no chance of stopping.
‘Driving a vehicle like that high profile, early in the morning and with a full load obviously they can’t stop on a dime,’ Watson said.
The Mustang collided with an SUV that crashed into a semi-truck (pictured right)
The Mustang briefly paused behind the crashed semi-truck before speeding around the wreckage on the right side of the highway
After the FHP’s pleas for help locating the Mustang and its driver, Braves staff noticed the suspected vehicle at the team’s spring training facility, CoolToday Park, in Venice, Florida
Kimberly Johnson, Facey’s partner and the mother of two of his children, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with daily living expenses, childcare and his funeral.
Morales is out of jail on supervised release after being granted a $200,000 bond. He was instructed to surrender his passport.
Although his attorney pushed for a lower bond, claiming Morales has never been in trouble with the law, the State Attorney’s Office found a speeding citation the catcher received in October for driving 81mph in a 50mph zone.
Born in Puerto Rico, Morales has been a US citizen since around the age of 10, his attorney said, as reported by Fox 13.
The Braves signed him in July of 2025 and assigned him to the rookie-level Florida Complex League. In November he took an assignment to play for Puerto Rico’s Cangrejeros de Santurce.
Facey’s family is now desperately trying to pick up the pieces of their lives following his tragic death at just 34. Kimberly Johnson, Facey’s partner and the mother of two of his children, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help with daily living expenses, childcare and his funeral.
‘I never imagined I would be in this position,’ Johnson wrote online. ‘I am a single mother of two beautiful children, both under the age of three, and recently our lives were turned upside down by an unimaginable loss. The father of my children, my partner, passed away suddenly in a horrific accident, leaving us heartbroken and struggling to find our way forward.’
