A day in Hollywood Beach ends at edge of Everglades with blowtorch torture: feds
When a group went to smoke marijuana in the parking lot of the Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort, two of the people were kidnapped at gunpoint and terrorized with a blowtorch and pliers, a federal complaint said.
On the evening of May 26, the two victims and one witness were approached by Saul Alfonso Fajardo, 19, and a minor while walking on the boardwalk toward Margaritaville, according to the complaint filed in Fort Lauderdale federal court. They knew each other.
Fajardo asked if they wanted to come to his red Hyundai Elantra to smoke weed, and they walked to his car on the fourth floor of the parking garage, the complaint said.
They were rolling a joint inside Fajardo’s car when a blue Cadillac pulled up behind and blocked the vehicle in a parking spot, the complaint said. A group of men — wearing latex gloves and ski masks and armed with semi-automatic guns — grabbed one of the victims, threw him on the hood of the car and started pistol-whipping him on the back of his head.
He was forced back into the front seat of Fajardo’s car. Fajardo, who was involved in the setup, was driving while some of the kidnappers sat in the backseat, according to the complaint.
During the car ride, they demanded the victim give them money “if he wanted his life to be saved,” the complaint said. He saw a pair of pliers inside the car.
“If I don’t get my money, every ten minutes I’m going to take one of your fingernails,” one of the kidnapping suspects said, according to the complaint.
They pulled into a parking lot off U.S. 27 near the Everglades, and the second victim arrived at the spot shortly after in a black Honda Accord with the rest of the accused kidnappers, the complaint said. Both victims were forced at gunpoint to get on their knees.
One of the men approached a victim with a blowtorch and started burning off his racing-flag tattoo, stating, “I’m gonna burn the tattoo off of you, you don’t deserve to have it. I’m going to torture you,” the complaint said.
Both victims were forced to strip to their underwear while demands for money continued. The group of men saw one of the victims was wearing an ankle monitor, so he was allowed to leave out of fear the police would find their location.
The remaining victim thought he was going to be killed, so he started faking a seizure, the complaint said. The group of men let him go, too.
He didn’t know where he was, so he walked through bushes until he found a residential neighborhood, the complaint said. He spotted two people and asked them to call the police.
One of the victims was robbed of his clothing, a gold Cuban bracelet and an iPhone. The other victim had many items taken. They included $400, three gold Cuban link chains and white AirPods.
Through a series of investigative methods, authorities identified the six men accused of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, the complaint said.
Fajardo, 19; Justin Phihoang Le, 20; Amari Tamire Hill, 21; Anthony Teruel Hernandez, 18; Marikevies McNichols Jr., 19; and Weilen Hernandez, 20, were all being held Thursday at the Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach, Broward jail records show.
Anthony Teruel Hernandez’s attorney had yet to respond to a request for comments. Weilen Hernandez didn’t have an attorney listed yet. Fajardo’s and McNichols’ respective attorneys declined to comment. Attorney Kenneth Swartz said it should be remembered that his client, Hill, is presumed innocent.
The allegations in this case are “really kind of tough facts to talk about,” Michael Gottlieb, who is representing Le, said.
While Gottlieb is mindful that there are some aggravating circumstances, his first instinct was that it was very odd to see this case being prosecuted at the federal level, he said. Normally, there is a much more substantial connection to interstate commerce. But in this case, the guns allegedly used weren’t manufactured in Florida.
The accused are young men who would have a better shot at rehabilitation in the juvenile-justice system, Gottlieb said. When he looks at crimes such as these, he thinks society has a problem with the “internet, TV and video games sort of desensitizing our reaction to violence.”
“When it relates to the young minds of these kids, they think they can get away with this stuff,” Gottlieb said.
