Man admits to being gunman who carjacked woman in case involving drugs and money, affidavit says
Apr 25, 2024, 3:16 PM | Updated: 6:18 pm
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A man questioned about his role earlier this month in the fatal carjacking of a woman in central Florida told investigators that he was paid to kidnap her and deliver her to someone, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Jordanish Torres-Garcia told investigators that he was the masked man in a hoodie seen in a video jumping out of a vehicle at a traffic light in suburban Orlando and pointing a semi-automatic rifle at Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, who was stopped in front of his vehicle at the stoplight, according to an affidavit filed Thursday by an FBI agent in federal court in Orlando.
Garcia said the weapon was unloaded and had been given to him a half hour before the carjacking two weeks ago. Garcia jumped into the South Florida woman’s vehicle, which made a U-turn and drove away. Garcia told investigators he was paid $1,500 to deliver her to an individual who wasn’t identified in the affidavit.
Hours after the carjacking, the 31-year-old woman’s body was found inside her burned-out vehicle in another Orlando-area county. She had been shot multiple times, according to the affidavit.
The last person she spoke with by a video call before her murder was Giovany Joel Crespo Hernandez, to whom authorities believe she was delivering money, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said at a news conference on Tuesday.
“This case is about drugs and money,” Lemma said.
Hernandez has been taken into custody on unrelated drug charges.
Garcia was questioned last week following his arrest on a federal warrant for violation of probation from a weapons charge in Puerto Rico. He was being held Thursday in the Seminole County Jail in Florida, with the FBI agent’s affidavit supporting a charge of carjacking resulting in death.
Court documents show his public defender asked to be removed from the case because of a conflict of interest. His new court-appointed attorney, Roger Weeden, said in an email late Thursday that, without an indictment yet, there were no charges with which to plea.
“Going forward, the initial plea after indictment is always ‘not guilty,’ which freezes the case, allows for discovery, defense investigation and pre-resolution negotiations,” Weeden said.
The driver of the car Garcia jumped out of, Kevin Ocasio Justiniano, was taken into custody earlier this week in Puerto Rico on unrelated drug- trafficking and weapons charges, authorities said.
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This story has been corrected to show the FBI agent’s affidavit supports charging Garcia with carjacking resulting in death, instead of Garcia being held on a charge of carjacking resulting in death.
