Yalitza Camacho sat inside a Dorchester courtroom on Monday clutching the favorite stuffed animal that her 8-year-old daughter slept with nightly, her eyes teary and glued to the prison docket.
She appeared anxious to see the face of James J. Horton, the Dorchester man accused of killing her little girl, Yadielys Deleon Camacho, and seriously injuring the girl’s 12-year-old cousin when he struck them with a rented Chevy Cruze in Mattapan Saturday night. The two had been riding bicycles during a birthday celebration for their grandmother.
But Horton, 45, walked into the docket with a navy green jacket covering his face and stood that way throughout his arraignment in Dorchester District Court on motor vehicle homicide and other charges stemming from the alleged hit-and-run accident. Judge Jonathan Tynes ordered Horton held on $500,000 cash bail.
Horton’s open bail on two earlier cases was also revoked and he was ordered to wear a GPS tracking device if he makes bail. His next court date is July 13.
Camacho, who had sat with three rows of relatives and friends, appeared angry that Horton shielded his face and she began to shout in Spanish: “He didn’t hit a dog! It’s my daughter who was left on the street!”
As Assistant District Attorney Judith M. Lyons began to describe the details of that night, the girl’s grandmother, Nelly Cruz, collapsed in the courtroom and had to be escorted out by relatives. Her cries echoed into the courtroom.
Horton’s sister, Chenita Taylor of Dorchester, said her brother was on his way to meet up with her and a friend that night.
Horton, a former seasonal Boston Public Works employee who had completed several stints in jail, was racing down West Selden Street, a 30-miles-per-hour speed zone, around 11 p.m. when he turned a corner, striking both children and a parked vehicle, Lyons said. He did not have a valid driver’s license.
“Mr. Horton was a temporary seasonal worker and will not be returning to employment with the city,” Mayor Martin J. Walsh said Monday. “It upsets me that Mr. Horton would leave the scene of the accident, regardless of the circumstances, and that a young child lost her life and another was gravely injured.”
After the crash, Horton allegedly fled onto Lena Terrace, leaving behind a bloody scene as Yadielys Deleon Camacho lay dying in the street and her cousin Joseph Eduardo Cordova badly injured with broken bones and a concussion.
“It was a tragic accident,” Taylor told the Globe. “It’s killing me that this situation happened. I know he didn’t mean it.”
At least a dozen family and friends came to support Horton, including his 22-year-old daughter Bryana.
After the crash, Horton abandoned the vehicle he had rented from a woman Saturday night, Lyons said. Police later arrested Horton at a residence on Kevin Road in Brockton, where he had been hiding. He initially denied being at the scene.
“If it was an accident, there was no need to hide, there was no need to run away,” said Julysa Cordova, 27, the girl’s cousin, who later translated what Camacho said in court. “But the way he did it . . . after you hit a little girl, seeing her in the middle of the street, look at her, and then run from the scene. . . . What he did, that was wrong.”
Yadielys Deleon Camacho, whom Cordova described as “a beautiful little girl that liked to be around [and] play with everybody” was a second-grader at Up Academy in Dorchester, who had moved from Puerto Rico with her family about a year ago in hopes of having a better life.
“Our hearts are broken by the tragedy that has taken our student, Yadielys Deleon,” UP Academy Holland principal Jabari Peddie said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Joseph Eduardo Cordova’s mother, Chantey Pagan, 32, said her son was doing better and was no longer in the intensive care unit. She said he had a severe concussion and sustained a broken leg.
Roughly a month ago, Horton, a father himself, had concluded his seasonal job with Boston Public Works where he emptied litter baskets and swept the streets. His work as a city employee dates back to 2010 and included stints with the Parks Department and Property Management.
And when Horton was arrested in January for driving an unregistered blue Jaguar through Dorchester with a suspended license and an open bottle of beer, he lamented that he was a city employee.
“Why can’t you just summons me? I’m a city worker, give me a [expletive] break,” Horton told police, according to court documents. “You’re a racist.”
“I got pulled over because I’m a black man driving a Jaguar,” Horton told officers at the police station.
Horton, who has five aliases, has 47 guilty findings on his adult record for a host of offenses including assault, motor vehicle offenses, and drug possession with the intent to distribute. Lyons said Horton’s probation record includes 14 restraining orders and there are 50 defaults on his criminal record.
Horton also faces charges in Brockton for assault and battery of a household member and assault with a dangerous weapon where the victim accused Horton of biting her hand and threatening her with a knife, Lyons told the court.
He served three years in state prison after being convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon in 2002.
“He recognizes that this type of incident is an accident that may have been caused by negligence, but it is an accident,” Horton’s attorney Alyssa Hackett said in arguing for a lower bail. “It is a horrible thing that has happened and he recognizes that.”
Jan Ransom can be reached at jan.ransom@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Jan_Ransom. John R. Ellement of the Globe Staff and Globe correspondent Astead W. Herndon contributed to this report.