The company says the driver had agreed to a courtesy ride before police say an argument over directions turned violent.
ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orlando driver identified in early reports as an Uber driver was not actually carrying out a trip booked through the Uber platform when police say a man he agreed to transport stabbed him during a dispute over the route, according to the company and investigators.
That detail clarifies an important part of the July 20 encounter, which was initially easy to understand simply as violence during an Uber ride. Police said the driver had completed an earlier rideshare trip and was still in the area near East Marks Street and Kenilworth Terrace when Jovaughn Nathan Matthie approached his vehicle. Matthie had not summoned the driver through the app, authorities said. The driver nevertheless agreed to take him a short distance. Uber later stressed that the transportation was a courtesy and not an active company trip.
The distinction does not lessen the seriousness of what police allege happened next, but it helps explain how Matthie and the driver came to be in the same vehicle. According to accounts of the arrest report, Matthie approached after the driver’s previous passenger had been dropped off and asked whether the vehicle was an Uber. After the driver responded, Matthie got in and sought transportation to a destination reported to be about five minutes away. Police statements that the driver refused an unbooked ride appear to describe the broader dispute, while more detailed accounts say the driver initially agreed to provide the courtesy transportation.
The disagreement developed after the vehicle was underway or the route was being discussed. Investigators said Matthie wanted the driver to follow directions different from those recommended by the GPS system. The driver declined. Police allege that Matthie then pulled a knife and stabbed the driver on the right side of his upper body, described in several reports as the chest. The attack allegation is the basis for a charge of attempted second-degree murder with a weapon. Matthie also faces a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence related to his later arrest.
The driver was able to survive the encounter, but authorities have released little about what happened to him afterward. His identity was not disclosed in the reports reviewed for this story, and police did not provide a detailed medical update explaining the seriousness of the wound, the treatment he received or whether he remained hospitalized. Uber’s public statement said its thoughts were with the driver as he recovered. The company also made clear that because the encounter had not been requested through its application, it did not consider the transportation an Uber trip.
The case therefore sits at an unusual boundary between a driver’s work and an informal decision made immediately after a completed trip. The available evidence indicates that the driver’s connection to Uber created the opportunity for Matthie to recognize the car as a rideshare vehicle, but the next transportation arrangement was not processed through the service. That distinction may matter to how the incident is described, though police have not suggested that the booking status changes the criminal allegations. Prosecutors would still have to prove what occurred between the two men and establish the elements of the charged offenses.
Police said Matthie left the stabbing scene rather than remaining with the injured driver. Officers responded shortly after 7 a.m. and began looking for him. He was located a short time later at an IHOP on East Colonial Drive near Summerlin Avenue. Local reporting citing surveillance footage said Matthie entered the restaurant after leaving the area of the confrontation and sat down for breakfast. The search therefore moved quickly from a residential street area to a public restaurant only a short distance away.
Orlando police later released body-camera footage from inside the IHOP. The recording shows officers approaching Matthie while he is seated at a booth with a cup of coffee. Their commands are forceful and repeated. Matthie does not immediately get onto the floor, and officers continue directing him to comply while a police dog is positioned nearby. He eventually lowers himself to the restaurant floor and is handcuffed. Police say his initial failure to follow the commands resulted in the resisting-without-violence count.
The footage made the IHOP portion of the case highly visible, but it should be distinguished from evidence about the stabbing itself. The video begins after officers have already identified Matthie as the person they are seeking. It documents his detention and the search that followed; it does not show the argument in the rideshare vehicle. After Matthie was handcuffed, an officer noticed an object in his pocket. Police said they removed a knife wrapped in material. Public reporting has not described forensic results determining whether that knife caused the driver’s injury.
Matthie’s arrest moved the case into court the following day. During his first appearance, Ninth Circuit Court Judge Jeanette Bigney ordered him held without bond on the serious charge. He told the judge that he wanted to represent himself despite acknowledging that he had no legal training. The judge warned him about proceeding without a public defender. When Matthie asked whether a zero-bond order meant he could leave custody, Bigney explained that it did not and that the order prevented him from posting money to obtain release.
By July 24, local reporting said a judge had allowed Matthie to proceed as his own lawyer. That ruling concerns his right to conduct his defense; it is not a determination about the evidence against him. As with any criminal defendant, Matthie is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove guilt in court. The reports reviewed for this story did not show that a trial had occurred by Aug. 26, and no later reliable account established a final disposition of the attempted-murder charge.
The public record also contains a minor factual discrepancy that illustrates the need for caution with early reports. One initial local story identified Matthie as 32, while multiple other reports, including later court coverage and reporting tied to jail information, gave his age as 42. The latter age is the one consistently supported by the later material reviewed here. Such differences do not alter the allegation but show why early breaking-news details can change as additional records are examined.
Police have also left open important factual questions. Orlando authorities said soon after the arrest that they were withholding some information to protect the integrity of the investigation. No complete public evidentiary account has been released explaining all statements from the driver, any additional surveillance recordings, forensic testing or whether other witnesses observed portions of the encounter. The precise sequence surrounding the initial willingness to provide a courtesy ride and the later refusal over directions has been pieced together through several reports rather than one fully public case file.
A later report from Pennsylvania offered the most recent independent indication located of Matthie’s custody after the Orlando hearings. Matthie is involved in an unrelated federal civil rights lawsuit there, and an Aug. 2 news report about that litigation listed his address at an Orange County correctional facility after the Florida arrest. The unrelated lawsuit does not bear on his guilt or innocence in Orlando and should not be used to judge the new allegations. Its significance to the current case is limited to the custody information contained in the later filing.
As of Aug. 26, the most reliable available reporting still left two central matters unresolved: the full medical outcome for the driver and the eventual legal outcome for Matthie. What is established publicly is narrower. A driver agreed to provide transportation outside the Uber booking system, police say a dispute over the route escalated into a stabbing, and officers arrested the accused man at a nearby restaurant. The rest remains subject to investigation and court proceedings.
Author note: Last updated August 26, 2026.