Police Begin Unraveling Homestead Kidnapping Plot
HOMESTEAD (CBSMiami) – Miami-Dade police have released the names and identities of those involved in a bizarre kidnapping plot in southern Miami-Dade County which ended with a woman being shot to death by police in Homestead.
Investigators said it began on Wednesday when two teens, Xavier Valdes, 17, and Luis Mir-Borjas, 18, were taken at gunpoint. The kidnappers then called their families and demanded a quarter of a million dollars in ransom for their safe return.
According to the police arrest affidavit, the investigation led police to the Cocowalk trailer park at 2nd Street NE 12th Avenue where police witnessed two men, Roman Villaceres Jr., 18, and Dexter Marshall, 26, driving Mir-Borjas' vehicle into the community.
While police were interviewing Villaceres Jr. and Marshall, police said Mir-Borjas managed to escape from his abductors in a nearby trailer and ran to a market to call police.
"He was only wearing pajama pants and he wanted help," said one of the store employees who didn't want to be identified. "He was very anxious, and he wanted us to help him quickly."
According to the report, Mir-Borjas told police he'd been kidnapped and held by five men in a trailer. He then led police to the trailer, leased by Dexter Marshall, where he said three men were asleep but were armed with guns.
He also told police a second kidnap victim, Valdes, was also in the trailer.
When police went inside the trailer, they found three additional suspects identified as Carlos Morillo, 25, Joe Manuel Cotte Vazquez, 17, and Alain Perea, 19.
Valdes, the second kidnapping victim, was also found bound and gagged.
Police said he'd been severely beaten in an effort to extract the ransom from his family.
At some point, Dexter Marshall's girlfriend, identified as 21-year-old Damaris Jaramillo confronted police with a handgun and police shot and killed her, stated the report.
Several guns were also found inside the trailer, said police.
All five suspects have been charged with First Degree Felony Murder & Armed Kidnapping.
