The horrific carjacking of a lady at a Winter Springs intersection and her brutal homicide final April was a focused killing rising from an organized, yearslong statewide crime spree that included the homicide of a tow-truck driver, residence invasions and shipments of enormous quantities of cocaine into Central Florida from Puerto Rico, federal officers mentioned Thursday.
“I do know members of this neighborhood have that concern: If I’m at a stoplight at an intersection in broad daylight, am I going to get carjacked?” mentioned U.S. Legal professional Roger Handberg for the Center District of Florida. “I simply need individuals to know that on this particular case, it was not a random act that that sufferer was carjacked…. It’s a story that started in 2020 and that performed out 4 years later together with her brutal homicide.”
Handberg made the feedback throughout a morning press convention at his Orlando workplace, revealing new particulars in regards to the sprawling case however declining to reply some key questions, a day after one of many defendants concerned within the carjacking and homicide of Katherine Guerrero de Aguasvivas, 31, pleaded responsible in federal courtroom to a number of weapons and drug prices. That defendant, Kevin Omar Ocasio Justiniano, is now scheduled to be sentenced April 15.
Justiniano is amongst 9 individuals — together with Guerrero de Aguasvivas’ husband, Miguel Aguasvivas Lizardo — who face greater than a dozen federal prices, together with drug trafficking, theft, unlawful use of firearms, carjacking, kidnapping inflicting loss of life and arson for his or her roles linked to the bigger drug operation.
Days after the Guerrero de Aguasvivas’ grisly killing, Jordanish Torres Garcia, Giovany Crespo Hernandez and Dereck Rodriguez Bonilla, together with Justiniano, have been arrested in connection to the crime.
Then final week, a brand new indictment named Anneliz Colon de Jesus, Sonic Torres and Cesar Silva Fernandez as additionally being linked to the bigger operation.
Guerrero de Aguasvivas was carjacked on April 11 after she picked up $170,000 from Crespo Hernandez’ Casselberry residence, in keeping with courtroom data. Investigators mentioned she was carjacked and robbed of the cash as she drove away from the house, taken to a vacant development website close to St. Cloud, shot a number of instances and set on fireplace inside her SUV.
In the course of the carjacking, Torres Garcia walked to her automobile, pointed an AR-15 rifle at Guerrero de Aguasvivas as she waited on the intersection, then climbed into the backseat whereas Justiniano adopted in a inexperienced Acura, investigators mentioned.
Courtroom data present that she was working as a courier for the group and would usually drive from South Florida to Central Florida to choose up and ship money bundles from drug gross sales. Handberg, nonetheless, provided few particulars as to why she was focused.
“Why on that individual event did they resolve to observe by way of and homicide her? That’s one thing that must come out because the case proceeds in federal courtroom,” he mentioned. “We see the efforts to cover who she was by lighting her on fireplace and lighting the automobile on fireplace. Primarily based on my expertise, it actually looks as if they didn’t need a witness to the theft they’d simply dedicated.”
“Violence and drug trafficking go hand in hand,” he mentioned.
A day earlier on April 10, the identical inexperienced Acura sedan and the identical gun utilized in Guerrero de Aguasvivas’ killing have been used within the brutal homicide of Juan Luis Cintron, a tow truck driver shot almost 100 instances as a part of a theft in a Taft neighborhood, investigators mentioned.
Handberg mentioned federal authorities have proof Torres Garcia shot each victims, and every was not “a random act.” However he provided few different particulars, together with whether or not Cintron was linked to the group.
The drug trafficking started in 2020 when Torres Garcia, Crespo Hernandez and his girlfriend, Monicsabel Romero Soto, introduced shipments of cocaine — as a lot as 5 kilograms at a time — into Central Florida from South Florida and Puerto Rico. Romero Soto faces federal drug trafficking and weapons prices.
In mid- 2022, Justiniano purchased legislation enforcement tactical gear from a Central Florida retailer for group members to disguise themselves as legislation enforcement officers and commit residence invasion robberies, investigators mentioned. The robberies continued by way of final February.
The defendants additionally trafficked medicine all through the state and Puerto Rico starting in 2021, when packages containing a complete of 27 kilograms of cocaine got here into Orlando from the island, mentioned Deanne Reuter, a particular agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami.
The killing of Guerrero de Aguasvivas opened the door to the prison group, Handberg mentioned.
“These organizations are like spiderwebs,” he mentioned. “I don’t anticipate this to be the tip of the story.”
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