Two men behind plot to kill Miami car designer to stars sentenced to 30 years

When custom-car designer Rolando Ramirez was found guilty in May of hiring a crew to kill his business rival, Alex Vega, Ramirez gave him a threatening look in Miami federal court.

“He turned around and said that I was a piece of shit ... then he looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘I’m going to kill you,’ “ Vega, who survived the hit, testified at Ramirez’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday. “He mouthed it.”

Both Ramirez, 52, and his partner, Rasheed Ali, 40 — convicted by a federal jury of a murder-for-hire conspiracy, murder for hire and stalking of Vega — were sentenced Wednesday afternoon to 30 years each in prison. At the end of the four-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman said he would have sent the two Miami-Dade men to prison for life under sentencing guidelines, but he was restrained by the cap of 10 years for each of the three offenses. So, he stacked them consecutively to give them the maximum punishment.

“My view is, the appropriate sentence is a life sentence,” Altman said before a packed courtroom filled with the defendants’ supporters, including family members who tried to present the men’s good sides to the judge.

Altman said he was prevented from imposing life in prison for both men after he dismissed three related charges on Wednesday that had resulted in convictions at trial, including discharging of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. That count carried up to life in prison.

The judge also ordered the two men to pay $30,000 in restitution to Vega.

Altman said Ramirez and Ali committed a “horrific crime” six years ago when they organized the plot to kill Vega, 51, at his Kendale Lakes home, leaving him physically and psychologically scarred for the rest of his life.

At the hearing, Vega said that after he was ambushed by a shooter in his driveway home on Aug. 27, 2019, he never really recovered from his three gunshot wounds. He thought he was going to die, as his wife and son rushed to his side in the aftermath of the near-deadly attack.

“I was forced to live through a nightmare no individual should ever experience,” Vega, 51, told the judge. “It was cold, it was deliberate, and it was calculated. ... That required a kind of evil that has no place in this society. ... Our lives will never be the same. I live in constant fear.”

During his testimony, Vega was asked by federal prosecutor Michael Gilfarb if he was happy that Ramirez would be facing a substantial amount of time in prison.

“One thousand percent,” Vega answered.

Both Gilfarb and fellow prosecutor Abbie Waxman were seeking a life sentence for both Ramirez and Ali, focusing on Ramirez as the ringleader who wanted Vega dead and Ali, a former University of Miami football player, as his go-to guy who helped him carry out the attempted murder.

The prosecutors sought the life terms before Altman dismissed three of the prosecutors’ charges involving a crime of violence that had resulted in convictions at trial. Altman cited case law, including a Supreme Court opinion.

The issue came up after trial when Altman questioned why the two men were charged with a crime of violence, which must legally show the use, attempted use or threatened use of physical force against a person as an “element” of the crime. The judge’s query prompted a team of defense attorneys, Philip Reizenstein, Paul Petruzzi, Richard Klugh, Jenny Wilson and Richard Merlino, to seek the dismissal of those three charges.

Once those three counts alleging a crime of violence were tossed out by Altman, the defense lawyers urged the judge to impose punishment well below the 30-year maximum on the remaining three convictions.

“Thirty years is too much,” Reizenstein argued. “This is not a man in sheep’s clothing, as Mr. Gilfarb said.”

Gilfarb later mocked that characterization, saying: “Yes, Mr. Ramirez is a good man, but for the murder.”

Shot in the driveway of his Miami home

In May, the federal jury found Ramirez and Ali guilty of directing the murder-for-hire conspiracy and related charges involving the attack on Vega, who was shot three times by a masked gunman as he was parked in his Land Rover at his home. But Vega 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.

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’ father, Victor Ramirez, owns 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.

Celebrity car designer

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 Ramirez’s close friend, 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 alleged that Ramirez came up with the plan of 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 a friend.

Serrano was convicted at a prior trial and Jimenez, the shooter, cut a plea deal. In 2023, they were sentenced to 50 years and 35 years, respectively, by Judge Altman. But Serrano testified for the government at the latest trial of Ramirez and Ali, so prosecutors are expected to ask the judge to reduce his prison sentence.

At that trial, the jury also found Ali’s friend, reggae artist Tamrat “Shifta” Mason, guilty of tampering with a witness in the murder-for-hire case. But in September, Altman reversed that conviction, then accepted Mason’s plea to a lesser charge of making a false statement to a federal agent.

In doing so, the judge gave Mason, 41, a sentence of time served, which amounted to the few days he had spent in a Miami federal lock-up after his arrest last year.

Before entering court, Mason, represented by lawyer Dustin Tischler, was facing a potential sentence between two and three years in prison for his original conviction on witness tampering involving lying to a federal agent during an FBI investigation. Mason’s plea deal carried a potential sentence between zero and six months in prison, with the judge opting to give him practically no time and no supervised release.

Mason attended Wednesday’s hearing in Miami federal court, which drew about 75 family members and friends of Ramirez and Ali.

This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 10:57 AM.