OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Douglas County’s top prosecutor say a lack of communication among government agencies allowed a 19-year-old man charged with motor vehicle homicide to flee justice. The Omaha World-Herald reports that a week after the Jan. 29 crash on an Omaha street, Eswin Mejia posted $5,000 bail to be freed. Authorities say he then skipped a urine test, and officials now can’t find him.

Mejia was charged Feb. 3rd with motor vehicle homicide and drunken driving in connection with the death of 21-year-old Sarah Root, of Council Bluffs. Root, who had recently graduated from Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln High School, was driving a 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada east on L Street about 2:15 a.m. Jan. 31 when her vehicle was rear-ended by a pickup truck driven by Mejia. Root’s sport utility vehicle was stopped or slowing when it was rear-ended near 33rd and L Streets. Root died later, at the Nebraska Medical Center.

A review of the case by the World-Herald shows Mejia – a Honduras national – was found to be a low risk to flee despite having twice failed to appear in court for other offenses. Federal immigration authorities declined to detain Mejia.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine criticized the case’s handling, saying “there has to be a common-sense communication between the feds and the state.”