The setup became simple enough: Call a plumber to a vacant South Florida home, pretend to have a few forms of hassle with a restroom or sink, then rip him off at gunpoint. But the rip-off went extraordinarily awry on a summertime day while a plumber was referred to as to an address in Miami Lakes. There, he became forced from his white van into a rented Volkswagen by men who federal government say plotted the theft. The plumber, sitting in the back seat of the Volkswagen, quickly struggled with the driver. The motive force fatally shot the plumber in the head and chest before crashing right into a tree. The other man becomes following them inside the plumber’s van. Now, Jamal Lamar Head, 33, the alleged shooter, and Keon Travy Glanton, 32, the alleged partner, have been charged with theft, kidnapping and killing Hernandez in a capacity demise penalty case in Miami federal court docket. The plumber, Lester Hernandez, 37, died on July 12, 2018.
Head’s attorney, Eric Cohen, with the Miami Federal Public Defender’s Office, declined to comment. Cohen has experience in loss of life penalty cases, which include representing the shooter who killed five humans and wounded six others at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in January 2017. Esteban Santiago pleaded responsible and became sentenced to life in jail, warding off the death penalty. Glanton’s protection attorney, Michael Entin, did no longer go back a name for remark. According to an indictment, Head turned into involved in 3 robbery schemes concentrated on plumbers at 3 South Florida houses — Miami Gardens, Riviera Beach and Miami Lakes — between July 9 and July 12 of last 12 months. Glanton participated within the Riviera Beach and Miami Lakes robberies, the indictment says. Murder instances typically emerge as in kingdom courtroom. But the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged the case as a Hobbs Act armed theft — one which influences trade — in conjunction with more than one different violent crimes. While some of the expenses towards Head and Glanton deliver lifestyles imprisonment or death, it is in the end as much as the U.S. Legal professional well known to decide whether to pursue the loss of life penalty. Both men, who’ve criminal histories in the state system, were ordered detained before trial. A 1/3 defendant, Christopher Grant Proby, has been charged with collaborating in one of the robberies, in Riviera Beach. He is in country custody. According to the indictment and different court docket records, the primary robbery took place on July nine, 2018, while a lady figuring out herself as “Michele” called a plumbing corporation to ship a person over to a Miami Gardens home due to the fact her bathroom become leaking. When the plumber arrived, he observed the home had a for sale sign and regarded vacant. The female met the plumber outdoor the front door, and she requested him to comply with her to the rear of the residence. While she walked lower back to the front, Head approached the plumber with a 9mm pistol in his hand, in line with a crook criticism filed in a separate case using the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. Head told the plumber at hand over his wallet and got in touch with, and that if he moved too speedy, he would “blow his head off.” Head then asked him if he had a certain piece of the plumbing system, which fee heaps of dollars, and grabbed the device from his truck, the complaint says. The plumber then walked away, got into his truck and drove to the Miami Gardens Police Department to document the crime. On July 11, Head joined Glanton and Proby in every other plumbing theft, this time in Riviera Beach. The target became a Roto-Rooter employee, who changed into referred to as to a vacant domestic to restore plumbing trouble.
Instead, the plumber turned into struck by using Head and fell to the floor, in keeping with federal court docket records. The three men took the plumber’s pockets along with a high priced piece of a plumbing system. The following day, Glanton contacted a third plumbing company and scheduled a provider call at a vacant home in Miami Lakes. When the plumber, Hernandez, arrived in his van, he turned into faced through Glanton and Head, in line with court records. They compelled him into the rear of the Volkswagen that Head had rented the day past. Head drove the car away, and Glanton followed inside the plumber’s van. “The victim and Head struggled inside the automobile before Headshot the victim in the head and the chest, causing the sufferer’s loss of life,” Federal Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis observed in her detention order for Head and Glanton issued Monday. “Head then crashed the rental vehicle [into a tree] and became injured inside the crash.” The incident passed off at Northwest 89th Avenue near Northwest 146th Street. Cellphone facts display that Head and Glanton had a 14-minute name after the crash. Video surveillance of the Miami Lakes community showed Head’s rented Volkswagen changed into within the area before the robbery, and also captured snapshots of him going for walks south from wherein the car crashed and entering into the victim’s van. Glanton drove the plumber’s van south, in which the vehicle was burned, the judge wrote, basing her findings on evidence from federal prosecutor Daniel Cervantes. Head’s blood changed into recovered from the airbag of the Volkswagen, and a seek of a nearby typhoon drain caused the recuperation of a pistol. Investigators showed it turned into the weapon used within the homicide of the plumber, in line with court docket information.
