Daren Schwartz

Appeared on trial day 4 as a State witness and owner of a small Miami rental car company. On direct, Schwartz identified one of the company's green/silver Toyota Priuses — distinguishable by its factory rims and a black replacement passenger-side mirror — as the vehicle rented to Luis Rivera in July 2014. Schwartz described fleet practice: SunPass transponders permanently affixed to each car and destroyed if removed, and Spirion GPS logging each vehicle's position once every 24 hours. The Spirion GPS business records for that Prius, State Exhibit 91, were admitted without objection.

Direct also covered a handwritten "brother" notation next to a phone number on the rental contract. Schwartz acknowledged the handwriting as his own, added as a secondary contact associated with a companion of the renter, but with no independent recollection of writing it. The Prius was returned July 21, 2014 with no damage noticed, and the small-company turnaround process was acknowledged as minimal. The vehicle was later sold, and Schwartz could not recall to whom or when. Schwartz also disclosed that he knew Sigfredo Garcia — not through any recalled rental, but through a former employee at the company with whom Garcia was friendly — and confirmed providing Tallahassee police investigators with the Prius's VIN, tag, and SunPass transponder information across two separate visits.

Cross-examination by Garcia's lead counsel, Saam Zangeneh, was brief and directed at separating Garcia from the rental transaction. Schwartz confirmed that Rivera came into the establishment alone and that Garcia did not accompany him to the counter, and that the "brother" notation on the contract came from information Rivera supplied rather than from any independent presence of Garcia. Magbanua's counsel and the State declined further questions, and the witness was excused.

The same account also surfaced through another witness earlier in the trial: SunPass records for the account of Daren Schwartz listed a green Prius and carried an email address indicating a rental car company specializing in hybrid vehicles, which investigators used to move from a toll transponder hit toward the specific rented vehicle. A known audio gap covers the opening portion of the direct examination, so the initial foundational questions establishing the company's identity and the witness's role are not in the record.