A Broward County man will be sentenced to federal prison next month after a jury found him guilty of participating in the murder-for-hire of an airplane technician whose body was discovered in the Everglades nearly three years ago.

Avin Seetaram, 27, of Margate, and two other Broward County men were charged in 2023 in connection with the death of Suren Seetal, 36, who lived in Miami-Dade County, federal prosecutors said.

Seetaram, also known as “Smalls,” and co-defendant Somjeet Singh, 32, of Coral Springs, knew Seetal from working in the fireworks business, according to a criminal complaint. Seetal kept a ledger of his purchases, sales and loans of fireworks, which revealed that Singh owed him more than $300,000. Seetal’s girlfriend told authorities that he had just started trying to collect his debts shortly before his murder.

Seetal disappeared the evening of Nov. 2, 2023. He was working at the Opa-Locka Executive Airport that day and spoke with his girlfriend on the phone shortly before 7 p.m., according to the complaint. He did not answer when she tried calling him again later that evening, and he did not come home that night or show up for work the next day.

Seetal’s family called local police on Nov. 4 to report his disappearance. His body was found nearly three weeks later in a wooded area of Big Cypress Reservation near Alligator Alley. He had been shot in the head, the complaint said.

3 Broward men accused of luring airplane technician to his death, dumping body in Everglades

Seetaram and Singh tried to carry out the murder-for-hire months earlier but failed, according to federal prosecutors. In July 2023, they sent a gunman and driver after Seetal, using an electronic device to track his car.

“The gunman opened fire on Seetal, who returned fire,” federal prosecutors said in a news release Thursday. “No one was struck, and the gunman and the driver fled.”

Prosecutors did not identify in the news release the gunman and driver who were involved in the first attempt. In a superseding indictment filed in 2025, Michael Jarrett Jarrett and Davindra Ramanan were charged with stalking and other charges stemming from the July incident.

Ramanan entered a plea agreement last year and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Jarrett’s case is pending in federal court.

The second plot on Nov. 2 involved a “newly hired gunman” who laid in wait as Seetaram and Singh lured Seetal to the address of an HVAC business Singh owned and operated in Broward County, according to prosecutors.

Cellphone records reviewed during the investigation showed Seetaram had been communicating with Seetal from that afternoon up until Seetal’s phone went dark later that night, according to the complaint. The two spoke on the phone while Seetal was at work in Miami-Dade County, and Seetal’s phone records showed he left work and went to the business in Broward after the phone call.

Seetal’s car was towed from the business in Broward shortly after 2 a.m. Nov. 3. Later that morning, Seetaram went to a Home Depot and purchased a 96-gallon garbage can. Cellphone records showed Seetaram was in the area of Snake Road on the Big Cypress Reservation the morning of Nov. 4, near the area where Seetal’s body would later be discovered, the complaint said.

“The gunman ambushed Seetal and shot him to death,” federal prosecutors said in the news release Thursday. “Seetaram and Singh then paid the gunman as promised and coordinated efforts to conceal the crime, including transporting and disposing of Seetal’s body in the Everglades.”

Gavin Hunter, then age 18, was allegedly paid $5,000 two days after Seetal’s murder, according to the superseding indictment. The indictment alleges Hunter was armed while waiting for Seetal to arrive at the HVAC business in the 5400 block of Northwest 15th Street in Margate and that he had “had a physical altercation” with Seetal there before the shooting.

Hunter’s trial is currently scheduled to begin in January.

Seetaram was convicted at trial on Aug. 21 of murder-for-hire conspiracy, murder for hire, stalking resulting in death, discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during a crime of violence and causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm during a crime of violence.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20. He faces up to life in prison on all but the charge of conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during a crime of violence, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.

Singh previously pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including murder for hire, kidnapping and causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm during a crime of violence, federal prosecutors said in the news release. He was sentenced to concurrent life terms in federal prison on six charges, nearly 12 years on a firearm conspiracy charge and 10 years on an obstruction of justice charge.