Three men convicted in murder-for-hire trial over a hit on car designer to stars
A long-running feud between rival custom-car designers Alex Vega and Rolando “Roly” Ramirez roared to a climax in a Miami federal courtroom on Wednesday.
A jury found Ramirez guilty of directing a murder-for-hire conspiracy and related charges involving a hit on Vega in the driveway of his Kendale Lakes home about six years ago. He was shot three times by a masked gunman as he was parked in his Land Rover on Aug. 27, 2019.
But Vega, 50, survived. He took the witness stand to deliver emotional testimony in the FBI case, which was built on incriminating circumstances, text messages, violent videos and secret payoffs.
Ramirez’s close friend, Rasheed “Free” Ali, a former University of Miami football player, was also found guilty of the same murder-for-hire conspiracy and other offenses.
“Ramirez wanted Vega gone,” prosecutor Abbie Waxman said during closing arguments on Tuesday, calling Ramirez and Ali “partners in crime.”
“They put the wheels in motion.”
The literal third wheel in the case, Ali’s buddy, Tamrat “Shifta” Mason, a California recording artist who had an apartment in Miami, was convicted of witness tampering as part of a cover-up.
READ MORE: ‘I’m hit, I’m hit:’ Car designer to stars testifies at murder-for-hire trial in Miami
The courtroom was packed with family members and friends of all three men, who appeared dejected as the jury’s unanimous verdicts were read aloud. Some of their supporters wept as they turned around to look at them.
The 12 jurors reached their verdicts after deliberating for about seven hours following a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Roy Altman, who set the defendants’ sentencing for early September.
Both Ramirez, 52, and Ali, 40, face up to life in prison after the jury found them guilty of seven counts of conspiracy, murder for hire, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, interstate stalking, firearm violations and witness tampering. Mason, 41, faces up to 20 years in prison on the sole witness tampering conviction, but he is expected to receive a far less severe sentence.
During the trial, Vega testified that he and Ramirez had been business competitors and partners for years before they had a falling out over Exclusive Motoring Worldwide in Doral. Vega, who customized cars, had owned the business, but then Ramirez, who did auto body work, took it over in an agreement to resolve Vega’s outstanding debts to him.
But their rivalry over money and customers led to a bitter lawsuit in Miami federal court in 2011 that was resolved through a settlement the following year. Ramirez ended up paying Vega $5,000 and his insurance company paid him another $20,000 — but Ramirez kept the business, assets and trademark.
Ramirez also owned another business, Doral Collision, next door to Exclusive Motoring.
During his testimony, Vega said that after they reached the settlement on June 27, 2012, under the supervision of a magistrate judge, Ramirez threatened him to his face, saying, “In due time. I’m going to kill you.”
“I freaked out,” Vega testified.
But in a court affidavit filed soon after the settlement, Vega only left in the part, “In due time,” but left out the part, “I’m going to kill you.” In the affidavit, he said under oath: “I took Ramirez’s words as a threat of future harm.”
On the witness stand, Vega said he was advised by his civil attorney to leave out the part of Ramirez’s threat about killing him.
But Ramirez’s defense lawyer, Philip Reizenstein, questioned why Vega would leave out that part, raising doubts about his client’s intent to kill his rival.
“What happened when he said he was going to kill you?” Reizenstein asked Vega.
“Nothing happened,” Vega answered.
Designed cars for Usain Bolt, Marc Anthony
After Ramirez and Vega parted ways, Vega went through a bankruptcy but rebuilt his reputation as a custom-car designer.
Vega, the owner of The Auto Firm in Kendall, has designed sports-car renovations for many celebrities, including Grammy-winning singer Marc Anthony, rapper Rick Ross and Jamaican Olympic gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt, to name a few. Vega was also featured in a New York Times profile and a reality TV series called “The Auto Firm with Alex Vega.”
In an indictment, Vega’s rival, Ramirez, and former UM football player, Ali, were accused of recruiting two New York men to carry out the hit on Vega: Jaime Serrano, 49, a marijuana dealer, and Julian Jimenez, 30, the son of Marcos Jimenez — Anthony’s sound engineer and occasional property manager, according to court documents.
Prosecutors Michael Gilfarb and Waxman alleged that Ramirez came up with having Serrano arrange the hit on his longtime enemy, Vega, as a way to pay off a $20,000 dope debt that Serrano owed to Ali and his friend, Mason.
According to court records, Serrano and Julian Jimenez flew from New York to Miami on an American Airlines flight on Aug. 21, 2019, rented a blue Nissan Rogue and stalked Vega. Six days later, in the early evening of Aug. 27, Serrano drove Jimenez in the Nissan to Vega’s Kendale Lakes home.
Jimenez, wearing a surgical mask and gloves and carrying a gun that Serrano gave to him after they had arrived in Miami, got out of the front passenger seat, approached Vega in his car in the driveway and started shooting, according to a statement filed with Jimenez’s plea deal. He fired eight shots, including three that struck Vega.
Shot three times
Vega testified that he suffered three bullet wounds in his shoulder, aorta and spine, as prosecutors showed photos of his surgical scars to the jury. He said the trauma “changed my life completely.”
A witness told FBI agents the men were offered $60,000 to carry out the hit, though that has never been confirmed.
Jimenez pleaded guilty to his part in the murder attempt and was sentenced by Judge Altman to 35 years in prison.
Serrano, who was convicted at trial of arranging the shooting and the trip from New York to South Florida to carry it out, was sentenced by Altman to 50 years in prison.
A jury determined Serrano was not the shooter, but played an important part in planning the operation — including buying the airline tickets from New York to Miami, renting cars in Florida, and obtaining the .40 caliber handgun that Jimenez used to shoot Vega. Serrano was also the getaway driver.
Serrano was tapped to testify for the prosecution at the trial of Ramirez, Ali and Mason.
Serrano took the witness stand and said Ali approached him in 2018 about the plot to kill Vega, then Serrano recruited Jimenez, who was broke. Serrano testified that Ali acted as an intermediary for Vega’s business rival, Ramirez, whom Serrano didn’t know.
During his testimony, Serrano referred to Ramirez as Ali’s “home boy” and that Ali’s friend approved the price tag for the hit on Vega — $15,000. Serrano said Ali paid him on two occasions before and after the shooting, and that he gave most of the money to the shooter, Jimenez, and kept some for himself.
Serrano said that Ali provided him with the weapon used in the attack on Ramirez’s rival. He said Ali had given it to him in a gym bag during a birthday party for Ali’s baby daughter.
During closing arguments on Tuesday, defense attorneys tried to portray Serrano as a pathological liar whose testimony could not be trusted.
“He is swimming in an ocean of lies,” Ali’s lawyer, Richard Merlino, told jurors. “This case is dripping with reasonable doubt.”
“He lied every step of the way,” Mason’s attorney, Dustin Tischler, said. “He’s not someone you can build a case around.”
But Gilfarb, the prosecutor, steered the jurors back to the reality of the evidence, saying the defense “completely made up” falsehoods about Serrano, not unlike the “tooth fairy” and “Santa Claus.”
‘Erasing drug debt’
His colleague, Waxman, said Serrano did marijuana deals with Ali and Mason and that he owed them more than $20,000 from profits and a pot stash that had been stolen from Serrano’s residence in New York.
Ramirez’s plan was to “have Alex Vega killed in exchange for erasing Serrano’s drug debt,” Waxman said.
She also told jurors that while Ramirez and Ali have been held without bond at a federal lock-up in Miami, they plotted to kill Serrano because he was going to testify against them. She also said Mason paid “hush money” to Serrano while he was in custody so he wouldn’t testify against Ramirez and Ali.
Ramirez’s other defense lawyer attacked the credibility of Serrano. “Serrano is their star witness, but you’re not going to be able to believe one word he says,” attorney Eric Schwartzreich told jurors.
But apparently the jurors did, based on their unanimous guilty verdicts for all three defendants.
This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 6:27 PM.
