Miami Shores

Courts

Miami Shores teen who killed WaveRunner thief won’t face criminal charges

 
 
A family provided picture of Reynaldo Munoz, who was killed while trying to steal a WaveRunner.
A family provided picture of Reynaldo Munoz, who was killed while trying to steal a WaveRunner.
PATRICK FARRELL / STAFF PHOTO
Upload and share your own.

You can share related videos and photos.

Submit: Video Pictures Stories

dovalle@MiamiHerald.com

He said the State Attorney’s memo contained “very powerful language” that he believes will persuade a Miami-Dade civil court judge to dismiss the lawsuit.

The afternoon of the shooting, Muñoz and his girlfriend, Carolina Lopez, had driven to the Pelican Harbor Marina off the 79th Street Causeway between Miami and North Bay Village.

Their plan: steal a WaveRunner, to be sold for $2,000. Using Muñoz’s own WaveRunner, the two zoomed across Biscayne Bay to the Davis home

The home, on the 9200 block of Bayshore Drive, is owned by Jeffrey and Yasmin Davis, the teen’s parents. Jeffrey Davis, a prominent civil lawyer, was not home at the time.

Lopez dropped Muñoz off two homes away from the Davis house. Muñoz swam to the seawall. Attached to his life vest: a “remote kill switch key” that starts and stops all WaveRunners.

His girlfriend, who used a spare key to restart the first WaveRunner, zipped back across Biscayne Bay to wait for Muñoz at Pelican Harbor.

At the time, Yasmin Davis and her family had just finished lunch when she saw a “strange man” by the pool cabana door in the backyard.

“Yasmin walked out the rear kitchen door toward the stranger and asked him what he was doing. The stranger did not answer, but turned around and looked toward their Yamaha WaveRunner,” according to the memo.

She later told a Miami-Dade police detective that she noticed the “accomplice” on the WaveRunner and feared an “ambush.” Yasmin Davis said she began to “flashback” to when two armed men, the year before, had robbed her and her husband in the front driveway.

Using a cordless house phone, Yasmin Davis frantically called 911 while hollering at the man to no avail. She also yelled to Jack, who was in his bedroom, to grab the family’s gun.

Yasmin Davis told police that the man ignored her yelling. She worried that the kitchen door was ajar, that perhaps someone might dart inside. She thought the man said “gun” while holding a “black or very dark” weapon in his hand.

Muñoz, 20, of Hialeah, thrust the WaveRunner from its electric lift and into Biscayne Bay.

Jack Davis, meanwhile, grabbed the shotgun from underneath his father’s bed, raced outside to his mother’s side in the backyard. She cried out that the man had a gun.

In those last critical moments, Muñoz was atop the stolen WaveRunner, idling in the water. To Jack Davis, Muñoz looked hunched over, leaning into the machine’s center compartment. They made eye contact.

Jack “racked the [shotgun’s] slide so the strange man could hear it in hopes that the sound would be enough to scare him to leave. However, the man’s expression did not change and it didn’t scare him into leaving,” according to the memo.

As he idled, Muñoz appeared to rev the WaveRunner as though he were leaving. “Wait, wait, wait,” Yasmin Davis told her son.

But then the man “put his hand in the front compartment again as if he was trying to get something” and a made a sharp right turn to face Jack and Yasmin Davis, the memo said.

Yasmin ordered her son to shoot. Jack himself later told police he was “confused” and feared the man had seen his shotgun and was going to shoot at him.

Read more Miami Shores stories from the Miami Herald

Miami Herald

Join the
Discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

The Miami Herald uses Facebook's commenting system. You need to log in with a Facebook account in order to comment. If you have questions about commenting with your Facebook account, click here.

Have a news tip? You can send it anonymously. Click here to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

Hide Comments

This affects comments on all stories.

Cancel OK