Police: Cutler Bay Murder Suspect Targeted By Ex-Girlfriend
CUTLER BAY (CBSMiami) – Two arrests have been made in connection with the murder of a South Florida teacher whose body was found in Cutler Bay on Wednesday night and the circumstances surrounding the murder sound like something right out of a movie script.
According to Miami-Dade police, Jose Martin Perez-Sanchez, 21, of Miami Springs, and Dianelis De La Caridad-Fonseca, 22 of Hialeah have both been charged with First Degree Murder in the death of 25-year-old Richard Vasallo.
According to the police arrest affidavit, Dianelis was Vasallo's ex-girlfriend and she hired a man to kill him.
Vasallo was seen walking along SW 216th Street and 98th Court just inside the Montego Bay subdivision on Wednesday by someone who called police to report they'd seen a "very bloody man" walking along the road.
Police found Vasallo's body lying in the road. His car was found a short distance away parked in a lot.
The police affidavit states Dianelis paid Perez-Sanchez $600 and agreed to marry him so he could establish U.S. permanent residency status, in exchange for the murder of her estranged boyfriend.
After the two conspired and planned, Dianelis "concocted a ploy to lure the victim to a desolate area in order to carry out the formulated plan," states the affidavit.
Vasallo, said the affidavit, was fatally wounded by sharp force trauma and investigators did recover a knife, believed to be the murder weapon.
Vasallo graduated FIU in 2009 and taught engineering at SIA Tech. Friday Vasallo's students wrote their condolences to his family.
The principal of SIA Tech said, Andrea Loring described Vasallo as, "probably the best upstart teacher I ever had he was kind, big-hearted. He would stay and help any student with any subject. He was smart."
The school held a memorial service Friday afternoon.
"He had so much more to give," said Loring, "The staff is crushed, the students are devastated, it was a tremendous tragedy."
He lived about three blocks away from where he was found dead.
Both suspects have confessed to the crime, according to police.
