Who killed a young couple? Jailhouse talk shakes up the case

The brother of one of two men in jail awaiting trial for an October 2015 double murder in Tavernier said he was the one who actually pulled the trigger, not Jeremy Macauley — who was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in March, according to a sworn statement given to police and prosecutors last month by a former county jail inmate.

The inmate’s account of what he said Kristian Demblans told him when they were briefly cell mates in September was deemed credible enough to warrant a meeting with two Monroe State Attorney’s Office prosecutors and two Monroe County Sheriff’s Office detectives on Oct. 7.

His testimony is potentially damaging to the state’s case against Macauley and Kristian Demblans’ twin brother, Adrian Demblans.

“He said he did it, and his brother is going up the road for him,” the inmate told Chief Assistant State Attorney Manny Madruga. The State Attorney’s Office provided an audio recording of the statement Monday to The Reporter/Keynoter following a public records request. Madruga would not comment on the statement.

Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said he stands by his detective’s case against Macauley.

“It is not uncommon in this type of case to have rumors, speculations and attempts to derail the case to help the bad guy,” Ramsay said when reached Monday. “The Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office continue to follow up on every lead that comes in to ensure the accuracy of the case. At this time, the theory, evidence and determination remain the same.”

Ramsay added that any more questions should be “answered by the [State Attorney’s Office], as the case is in their hands now.”

The inmate was in the county jail on a burglary charge following his arrest in May. He was a month away from finishing his sentence when he gave the sworn statement. Macauley’s lawyer, Ed O’Donnell, said the inmate had nothing to gain by disclosing to police what Kristian Demblans, in jail on cocaine and heroin- dealing charges since mid-September, told him.

The inmate said Kristian Demblans told him that he killed Tara Rosado, 26, and Carlos Ortiz, 30, on Oct. 15, 2015 after they called demanding $20,000. Prosecutors and detectives say Ortiz was trying to extort money from Macauley in exchange for his silence about more than a dozen kilograms of cocaine Macauley found floating offshore while working as a charter fishing boat mate in the summer of 2015.

Adrian Demblans is accused of driving Macauley to and from the Cuba Road home in Harry Harris Park where Rosado and Ortiz lived with Rosado’s three young children -- ages 3,4 and 8 at the time. Adrian Demblans was arrested in March and charged with accessory after the fact of a capital felony.

But according to the inmate, Macauley wasn’t the trigger man. Kristian Demblans was. And, what prompted the inmate to discuss his conversations with his one-time bunk mate was the revelation that Rosado’s children, who were found safe in their front yard the day after the murders, may have been targets themselves.

“And he said, so he went over there and he shot them. And he said if the kids would have come out of the room, he would have shot them too. And that’s what really got me, because that’s really horrible,” the inmate told Madruga. “And I could see in his face....You know I know he did it. I could just tell by his face. He looked me dead in the eye and was so, so.”

“It gives me chills just thinking about it,” he said.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 7:17 AM with the headline "Who killed a young couple? Jailhouse talk shakes up the case."