Pain & Gain plotter, free after flipping on his partners, testifies against them again
Jorge Delgado admitted to jurors last week that he tried to kill a man who had gained his trust and friendship in a gruesome extortion plot gone haywire. The man, who had amassed a small fortune mostly through Medicare fraud, was tortured, beaten, starved, stunned with a Taser and set on fire during a planned car crash into a concrete pole.
That victim, a man named Marcelo Schiller, managed to survive. Two others in a bloodier plot Delgado was at the center of did not — the notorious 1995 murder and dismemberment of a wealthy Golden Beach couple who made millions in the 900-phone sex business.
The kidnapping and torture of Schiller and the murders of Frank Griga and girlfriend Krisztina Furton by a group of body builders and workout fanatics known as the Sun Gym Gang not only turned into one of Miami-Dade’s most sensational and lengthy trials, it also supplied source material for the 2013 movie Pain & Gain starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Now, the brutal crimes are being revisited in Miami-Dade criminal court in a state-ordered hearing that could potentially change the death sentences for two of Delgado’s partners in the deadly shakedown plots three decades ago — Noel Doorbal, 52 and Daniel Lugo, 61.
So far, both Delgardo, who spent only seven years in prison after flipping on his partners, and Schiller have taken the stand to recount the chilling details.
“They asked for a list of my assets and started hitting me and then they decided to play Russian Roulette,” Schiller said told jurors as the re-sentencing trial started. “They knew my bank accounts, everything. Security accounts, my house. I knew who it was — Jorge Delgado.”
Delgado — who turned state’s witness and agreed to testify against his co-horts in exchange for a significantly reduced prison sentence — confirmed how he coldly turned against Schiller, who was running his own criminal scams.
He told jurors how in the years prior to the kidnapping he ingratiated himself with Schiller, a relative loner who considered Delgado his only and closest friend. Schiller, who would later be imprisoned for Medicare fraud, even showed Delgado his jewelry collection and shared information with him about his assets. They went into business together.
Schiller took Delgado on a trip with him to the Cayman Islands where Schiller hid some of his money in a secret Swiss bank account. They had dinner together with their wives. And, Delgado said, he paid close attention when Schiller entered the numbers on his alarm code to get into his home.
During testimony, Doorbal’s attorney Francisco Marty got Delgado to admit to everything from the Schiller murder plot to be being in the home where Griga and Furton were murdered, to Medicare fraud.
“If you had never met Mr. Lugo, would you have committed any of the crimes?” Marty asked.
“No,” replied Delgado.
The Sun Gym Gang
Delgado, now 61, is the most prominent of several members of what would come to be known as the Sun Gym Gang who received significantly reduced prison sentences for turning state’s witness and testifying against Lugo and Doorbal.
The case is back in court because of a change in Florida’s death penalty law in 2023.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state legislators were so incensed with the life sentence verdict for Marjory Stoneman Douglas convicted mass killer Nikolas Cruz that they changed the law. Now, only a super-majority, or eight of 12 jurors, are required in order to send someone to death row. Prior to the new law, a unanimous decision was required to sentence someone to death.
The new law required re-sentencing trials for dozens of death row inmates throughout the state, including several in Miami-Dade, Lugo and Doorbal among them.
Pain & Gain fiasco
As recounted in court and in a three-part series written by former Miami New Times reporter Pete Collins in 1999, Delgado provided the link between Schiller and Lugo, a man who had previously spent time in prison for white collar crime and who is considered the architect of the failed extortion plots.
Delgado, a car salesman in the Miami area, met Schiller in 1991 and the two hit it off. Virtually inseparable, they joined forces in a Medicare fraud scheme that profited millions of dollars, but that would eventually land both men in prison. Delgado, who was personally trained by Lugo at the Sun Gym, introduced him to Schiller.
According to Collins and testimony, Lugo, after familiarizing himself with Schiller’s business, saw him as a mark and managed to convince Delgado that the businessman was stealing money and clients from their medical firm. By late 1994, Lugo, Doorbal and Delgado — after several failed attempts, including a scuttled plan to dress up as Ninja warriors on Halloween and take Schiller from his home — successfully kidnapped Schiller outside of a Schlotzky’s Deli franchise he owned near Hialeah.
For a month, they tortured and beat Schiller in a warehouse. Despite being blindfolded the entire time, Schiller was able to quickly identify his kidnappers. Still, they pressured him into convincing his family to leave for Colombia, then concocted a scheme in which Schiller signed over more than $1 million in assets from mostly hidden accounts with the aide of a rogue notary.
They even gained access to Schiller’s home. Delgado knew the alarm codes and memorized where Schiller kept an expensive Rolex watch and diamond jewelry.
According to testimony from Delgado, Lugo was in charge of the money and would pay the kidnappers. Delgado said he was given $100,000 that he used to have a home built. Soon it became clear to the men that the only chance they had of getting away with the scheme was by killing Schiller.
They tried and failed repeatedly. After setting him afire and crashing his car into a concrete pole, they later learned he was alive at Jackson Memorial Hospital. By the time they got there, Schiller had already been moved to a New York hospital with the help of his sister.
New targets to extort
Six months later, the men had come up with yet another extortion scheme. This plan was to steal money from Griga, a wealthy Hungarian who made millions in the phone sex industry. After inviting Griga to Doorbal’s home at the end of May in 1995 to discuss a business arrangement, something went wrong and Griga was battered to death by Doorbal. Delgado testified that Lugo called him and told him to rent a U-Haul and come over to Doorbal’s home.
When he got there, Delgado said Griga’s girlfriend Furton was still alive. He testified he sat on the couch while Doorbal repeatedly injected her with so much horse tranquilizer it eventually killed her. Doorbal, Lugo and Delgado then came up with a plan to dismember the bodies in a warehouse operated by Lugo and disperse the body parts throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties in containers and oil drums.
A week later, arrest warrants were procured for the three men and others. Lugo was found a week later in the Bahamas trying to drain one of Schiller’s hidden accounts. All were taken into custody and charged with extortion, kidnapping, attempted murder and the murders of Griga and Furton.
Furton’s body would be identified through serial numbers on her breast implants. The oil drums were found in canals after an anonymous caller tipped off police.
Delgado, who was staring at a possible death sentence, decided to turn state’s witness. In exchange for his testimony, Delgado received a 15-year sentence. He served seven and was out by 2002.
During two days of testimony last week, Delgado told jurors how frightened Furton was during the abduction and that he witnessed Doorbal kill her.
“Take me to Frank. Where is Frank?” Delgado told jurors Furton screamed as a black hood was placed over her head. Then, Delgado said, Lugo told him it was horse tranquilizer as Doorbal retrieved yet another dose from his refrigerator.
“He injected it into her anklets,” said Delgado. “Then Lugo held her down and he got another syringe. Doorbal injected it into her thigh.”
The hearing is expected to wrap up later this month.
