Red Sox-Yankees Rivalry Turns Fatal

Murder charge for Yanks fan accused of mowing down rival fan outside N.H. bar.

ByABC News
May 5, 2008, 4:11 PM

May 5, 2008— -- A New York Yankees fan has been charged with second-degree murder after allegedly ramming her car into a group of people outside a New Hampshire bar, killing a Boston Red Sox fan.

Ivonne Hernandez, 43, was arraigned this morning in Hillsborough District Court on reckless second-degree murder and drunken driving charges. She did not enter a plea and will be held without bail.

The murder charge followed the weekend death of 29-year-old Matthew Beaudoin, who was one of two people struck early Friday morning by Hernandez in a Nashua, N.H., parking lot after an altercation that reportedly involved fans of the rival big league teams.

Hernandez, of Nashua, had initially been charged with two counts of felony reckless conduct, but one of the charges was increased after Beaudoin's death.

"One of the pedestrians sustained minor injuries," according to the Friday release from the state Attorney General's Office. "The second pedestrian sustained life-threatening injuries."

Beaudoin, of Nashua, died from his injuries after being transported to a Massachusetts hospital.

Prosecutors did not immediately return a call from ABC News, but they told New Hampshire affiliate WMUR that words were exchanged outside a bar behind Nashua City Hall early Friday morning between Hernandez and a group that included Beaudoin.

Some kind of taunt allegedly was made about a Yankees sticker on Hernandez's maroon Dodge Intrepid, prosecutors told WMUR, and she drove across a dirt parking lot directly at the group.

"Mr. Beaudoin was struck by Miss Hernandez's vehicle," Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell told WMUR. "He went onto the windshield and then, when the car hit the parking meter, he was ejected into the middle of Elm Street. He died of massive head trauma."

Morrell said that Hernandez accelerated at a high speed for about 200 feet before slamming into Beaudoin and a second victim. "She indicated to police that she wanted to scare this group of people," Morrell said. "She thought they would get out of the way."