Julio Cesar Hernandez-Montero and Yurwin Smith Salazar Maita are accused of killing 43-year-old José Luis Sánchez Valera on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2024.
Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department
A Venezuelan man possibly linked to the feared Tren de Aragua gang has agreed to plead guilty to the kidnapping and killing of a former Venezuelan police officer who was allegedly lured to a Miami-Dade hotel by two women before being abducted, bound and asphyxiated.
Julio Cesar Hernandez-Montero, who was arrested in Panama and extradited to South Florida in 2024, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping resulting in death and carjacking resulting in death in the November 2023 killing of Doral resident Jose Luis Sanchez Valera, according to a plea agreement filed in Miami federal court. Hernandez-Montero agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
The agreement is the latest development in a case that became one of South Florida’s earliest high-profile crimes possibly linked to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan criminal organization that has drawn intense scrutiny from U.S. authorities.
It also provides the most detailed account yet of the planning behind Sanchez Valera’s killing, describing an operation involving six people who prosecutors say met repeatedly before the crime, scouted the victim’s apartment and obtained a gun, masks, gloves and tape before abducting him.
Hernandez-Montero has also agreed to provide prosecutors with information and testimony and appear before grand juries and at trials.
The cooperation could prove critical for Hernandez-Montero, who faces a mandatory life sentence on the charge of kidnapping resulting in a death. Prosecutors retain the option of asking a judge for a sentence below an otherwise applicable mandatory minimum if they determine that his assistance in other criminal investigations or prosecutions is substantial enough to warrant it.
The agreement does not require prosecutors to make such a request, and the judge would not be obligated to grant one.
The plea agreement does not identify what information Hernandez-Montero might be providing or whether his cooperation involves Tren de Aragua.
Hernandez-Montero’s lawyer, G P Della Fera, declined to comment.
A plot planned over days
The new filings significantly expand what authorities had previously disclosed about the killing.
According to a factual proffer signed by Hernandez-Montero, prosecutors would have been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that six people participated in the conspiracy: Hernandez-Montero, Yurwin Smith Salazar Maita, Yorvi Jose Arenas Lezama, Yoleidy del Carmen Ilarraza, Maria Alejandra Lobos Gamez and Darwin Jesus Mijares.
In the days leading up to the killing, the six met multiple times at a Miami-Dade hotel to discuss kidnapping and robbing Sanchez Valera, prosecutors said.
Salazar, Ilarraza and Lobos had previously met and interacted with Sanchez Valera and knew that he sold jewelry and gold. Salazar also knew where he lived.
The group agreed that Ilarraza or Lobos would lure Sanchez Valera to another hotel, where several of the men would kidnap him as he left.
The preparations allegedly extended to scouting his home.
On Nov. 26, 2023, the day before the kidnapping, Sanchez Valera invited Ilarraza and Lobos to his apartment. According to prosecutors, the women looked around for jewelry while they were there, and Ilarraza photographed the apartment’s front door and sent the image to another member of the conspiracy.
The following night, Sanchez Valera went to the La Quinta Inn near Miami International Airport to meet the women.
The original Miami-Dade police investigation found that Sanchez Valera arrived at the hotel late that night and remained there until after 2 a.m. Surveillance video captured him leaving the hotel and walking toward his Toyota 4Runner.
But the new federal filing says the men were preparing for him.
Hernandez-Montero, Salazar, Arenas and Mijares had gone to the hotel to scout where the kidnapping and robbery would take place before leaving to obtain supplies. They then returned to another hotel to await a message from Ilarraza, who was sending updates from inside the La Quinta.
When Ilarraza signaled that they were ready, the four men headed back carrying Salazar’s firearm along with gloves, masks and tape that he had purchased, according to prosecutors.
Mijares was assigned to remain outside as a lookout. Salazar, Hernandez-Montero and Arenas drove a Toyota Corolla into the La Quinta parking lot and waited for Sanchez Valera.
Abducted from hotel parking lot
At about 2:30 a.m., Sanchez Valera left the hotel.
Three men dressed in dark clothing emerged from a silver sedan parked near his SUV, pulled him from the driver’s seat and forced him into the back seat, according to the original police investigation. Surveillance cameras recorded the abduction.
The federal filing now identifies the three men as Salazar, Hernandez-Montero and Arenas.
Salazar took the driver’s seat while Hernandez-Montero and Arenas climbed into the back with Sanchez Valera, prosecutors said.
Once inside the vehicle, the men worked together to restrain Sanchez Valera and tie him up.
The new filing also identifies who prosecutors say killed him: Arenas punched Sanchez Valera several times and then asphyxiated him.
The men took gold jewelry that Sanchez Valera was wearing and the key to his apartment. Salazar drove the 4Runner to another location and abandoned it with Sanchez Valera still inside, bound by his hands and feet.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Sanchez Valera died from mechanical asphyxia and ruled his death a homicide.
His body was discovered that morning in the back seat of the 4Runner near Northwest 28th Street and 37th Avenue. He was 43.
Tren de Aragua claim
The theft, however, was not over.
After switching vehicles, Mijares drove Hernandez-Montero and Arenas to Sanchez Valera’s apartment in Doral, according to the federal proffer. Mijares stayed outside while the other two entered.
Sanchez Valera’s roommate was sleeping on a couch when Hernandez-Montero and Arenas came into the apartment. The men demanded to know where Sanchez Valera kept his jewelry and possessed Salazar’s firearm while inside, prosecutors said.
Arenas forced the roommate onto her knees and threatened her, saying that they were Tren de Aragua and had been sent to kill her, according to the federal filing.
The two men found Sanchez Valera’s safe and left with it. Prosecutors say it contained gold, jewelry and approximately $40,000 in cash.
The Tren de Aragua claim had previously surfaced in the original Miami-Dade homicide investigation.
According to the probable-cause affidavit, Sanchez Valera’s roommate told detectives that one of the home invaders was called “Julio” by the other man. The second man told her during the robbery that they were from Tren de Aragua.
The new federal filings do not explicitly identify Hernandez-Montero as a Tren de Aragua member.
Detectives followed phones, video and fingerprints
The original investigation shows how Miami-Dade homicide detectives began assembling the case.
Cellphone data placed Hernandez-Montero near the South River Suites in Medley before the killing. Investigators learned he had booked two rooms there and had been using them since Nov. 2, 2023.
Hotel surveillance showed Hernandez-Montero leaving shortly before midnight on Nov. 27 with two other people. Detectives said their clothing matched that worn by the men captured on surveillance during the kidnapping and Doral home invasion.
Investigators also linked Salazar to the crime through a fingerprint recovered from the rear door of Sanchez Valera’s 4Runner and cellphone-location records.
Those records placed Salazar’s phone near the South River Suites before the crime, near the La Quinta around the time of the kidnapping, near the location where Sanchez Valera was found dead and in the area of the Doral apartment where the home invasion occurred.
Salazar was arrested in Broward County in January 2024. Hernandez-Montero was arrested two months later in Panama City and extradited to the United States with assistance from the FBI. Salazar’s lawyer, Christian Dunham, declined to comment.
The federal proffer now reveals what allegedly happened after the killing.
After the home invasion, the conspirators changed clothes and planned to meet in Orlando the following morning. Salazar never made it there, but Hernandez-Montero, Arenas, Mijares, Ilarraza and Lobos met in Orlando and fled the United States together, prosecutors said.
Arenas Lezama, also known as “El Nene,” is in Colombian police custody during extradition proceedings to the United States, while Mijares, Ilarraza and Lobos are still at large.
el Nuevo Herald
Galardonado periodista con más de 30 años de experiencia, especializado en la cobertura de temas sobre Venezuela. Amante de la historia y la literatura.