Man admits he was paid to kidnap Homestead woman in Central Florida, FBI says

A man arrested as part of an investigation into the shooting death of a Homestead woman carjacked at gunpoint at an Orlando-area intersection admitted to FBI agents he was paid to kidnap her and deliver her to someone.

Jordanish Torres-Garcia, 28, told the FBI that he was the masked man seen in a video at a Winter Springs intersection, court documents say. Around 6 p.m. April 11, he got out of a green Acura and pointed a semiautomatic rifle at Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, according to an April 24 complaint filed in federal court in Orlando.

The Homestead woman was stopped at a red light in her white Dodge Durango in the suburban community north of Orlando.

Torres-Garcia said he met with someone about a half-hour earlier near the area of Lake Drive in Seminole County, and that person gave him an AR-15 rifle “to be used in the carjacking,” according to the complaint.

He then received a phone call that Guerrero De Aguasvivas, 31, was on her way, the agent said in his report.

Torres-Garcia said he and another man in the Acura located Guerrero De Aguasvivas at a stop sign on Lake Drive and tried to get her to pull over by bumping her Durango, but they were “unsuccessful,” according to the complaint.

However, when she got to the intersection of East Lake Drive and Tuskawilla Road she was forced to stop because of a red light.

That’s when the gunman got out of the Acura, pointing the rifle at Guerrero De Aguasvivas, and got into the back seat of the Durango.

Deliver her to ‘another individual’

Torres-Garcia told agents he was paid $1,500 to deliver her to “another individual,” the agent states in his report. That person was not named in the complaint, so it’s unclear if Torres-Garcia named anyone.

Hours later, the Durango was found torched at an Osceola County construction site, with Guerrero De Aguasvivas’ body inside, according to investigators. She had been shot to death.

Detectives found spent 10mm bullet cartridges at the scene, the same ammunition found at the scene of a tow truck driver killed the day before in Orange County, investigators say. The driver, Juan Luis Cintron Garcia, had towed the Acura from an Orange County apartment complex in March. Investigators say the two murders are connected.

At the time of the carjacking, a warrant was out for Torres Garcia’s arrest for a federal probation violation. In 2016, Torres Garcia was sentenced to three years in prison for a federal gun case in Puerto Rico. His time behind bars was followed by three years of probation.

Investigators determined late last week that Torres-Garcia owned the 2002 green Acura seen by witnesses in the carjacking. A person in a car behind the Durango recording the carjacking. Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said earlier this week that the driver of the Acura was a man named Kevin Ocasio Justiniano.

The 28-year-old was picked up in Puerto Rico, where he was being held on an unrelated federal automatic weapons possession and drug trafficking warrant.

The two will be charged with the federal crime of carjacking resulting in death, Lemma said earlier this week.

Lemma said Tuesday he believes Guerrero De Aguasvivas traveled to Central Florida to meet with Giovany Crespo Hernandez, a person of interest in the case. Her husband, Miguel Angel Aguasvivas, had initially told detectives that his wife drove to the area to meet with family.

But the Homestead woman’s brother, Luis Fernando Abreu, told detectives his sister was there to “deliver money and other stuff.” Lemma said his detectives located some of Guerrero De Aguasvivas’ relatives in the area, but they said they were not expecting a visit from her.

Aguasvivas had initially cooperated in the investigation, but Lemma said he no longer is. Miami Herald reporters went to Aguasvivas’ Florida City barber shop, but a man sitting outside said he wasn’t there.

Investigators say Crespo-Hernandez, 27, was likely the last person Guerrero De Aguasvivas spoke to on the phone as she was driving on Interstate 4 in the downtown Orlando area before she was kidnapped.

Detectives last Wednesday served a search warrant on Crespo-Hernandez’s Casselberry home and found fentanyl, guns, marijuana, digital scales and cash. He turned himself in to police Monday night and is being held on drug trafficking and marijuana with intent to sell charges.

His girlfriend, 28-year-old Monicsabel Romero Soto, who lives with him in Casselberry, was arrested by federal agents last Wednesday after they say she took delivery of three bricks of cocaine that were found in a lamp in a package sent from Puerto Rico to a St. Cloud home in Osceola County.

On Thursday, Orlando federal magistrate judge Robert Norway ordered Romero Soto released from detention despite evidence of her involvement in “a substantial, long-running criminal enterprise.”

Romero Soto’s two children are in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families. Her defense attorney said she’s likely to comply with court orders to get the children back into her custody.

Also arrested in the investigation is Orange County Deputy Francisco Estrella Chicon. Investigators say he illegally accessed the personal and professional profile information of the lead Seminole County detective on the case. Detectives say he then shared that information with Aguasvivas the night of the murder as he drove to Seminole County to speak with investigators in person. Estrella Chicon’s wife is his childhood friend.

Estrella Chicon was arrested on April 14 and was released on a total bond of $15,000 last Thursday. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has relieved him of all law enforcement duties and suspended him without pay pending the criminal investigation.

Mother of two

So far, not much is known about Guerrero De Aguasvivas, a mother of two young children who investigators say moved to Homestead from the Dominican Republic about five years ago.

Miami Herald reporters went to her place of employment, Dominican Beauty Room Salon and Spa in Florida City, on Wednesday. A sign on the outside of the business, in a small strip mall on West Palm Drive, stated: “No News Reporter At Job Site. Please Respect Our Privacy.”

As reporters stood reading the sign, a woman opened the door and demanded they leave.

Reporters also went to her Homestead apartment on Southwest 142nd Avenue, but no one answered the door.

The balcony was still adorned with strings of Christmas lights, and there was a Christmas-themed mat outside the front door. Her next door neighbor said he hasn’t seen anyone come and go from the third-story unit in months.