Federal prosecutors are expected to score their first victory Wednesday when one of the four main suspects in the April carjacking, kidnapping and murder of a South Florida woman will take the stand to plead guilty.
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Federal prosecutors are expected to score their first victory Wednesday when one of the four main suspects in the April carjacking, kidnapping and murder of a South Florida woman will take the stand to plead guilty.
Kevin Ocasio-Justiniano will plead to drug, gun possession and carjacking resulting in death charges, for which he is eligible to receive up to life in prison.
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According to documents filed by the court, the agreement resulted in prosecutors dropping the potential for Ocasio-Justiniano to receive the death penalty and will refrain from filing additional charges against him.
The plea appears to signal Ocasio-Justiniano’s cooperation with prosecutors as they expand their investigation into a ring of people now accused of committing crimes in Central Florida for years leading up to Katherine Aguasvivas’ death.
Aguasvivas’ car was taken at gunpoint, with her inside, while she was stopped at an intersection in Winter Springs. Her car was later discovered burned at the back of an Osceola County construction site with her remains inside.
Prosecutors later revealed the death was arranged in order to obtain the $170,000 in drug sales proceeds she had with her.
READ: Deputies search for suspects in deadly carjacking out of Seminole County
They long suspected the four primary suspects were part of a larger group that had ties to both South Florida and Puerto Rico. In the days leading up to the plea, prosecutors brought charges against three new suspects connected to the ring: Anneliz Colon De Jesus, Sonic Torres and Cesar Augusto Silva Fernandez.
None of them face charges that directly tie to Aguasvivas’ kidnapping, and Sonic Torres appears to have been held in the Osceola County Jail since before the woman was killed.
Instead, prosecutors accuse the trio, Ocasio-Justiniano and the other previously charged suspects – Jordanish Torres-Garcia, Monicsabel Romero Soto, Geovany Crespo-Hernandez and Dereck Alexis Rodriguez Bonilla – of various drug and weapons-related crimes.
The alleged spree began in 2022, when members of the group began dealing drugs, documents said. Prosecutors attached photos of several men purchasing and wearing tactical gear purchased on Orange Blossom Trail to Ocasio-Justiniano’s signed plea agreement, which they said was used to rob other drug dealers.
READ: Feds take over investigation into deadly Seminole County kidnapping, carjacking
Prosecutors also attached photos of Ocasio-Justiniano and Torres-Garcia holding up a barbershop amid a “personal dispute” and a group of masked men pointing weapons during a home invasion in Poinciana. They said the home invasion took place two months before Aguasvivas’ kidnapping.
They then displayed photos of Ocasio-Justiniano and Torres-Garcia pawning the proceeds from the invasion in a local shop.
Little was revealed about the carjacking itself in the latest filings with one exception: the involvement of an unnamed juvenile in both Aguasvivas’ death and the assassination of a tow truck driver in Taft the night before.
So far, no charges have been brought in connection to that shooting, though prosecutors are leaving the door open to additional charges later.
In addition to a possible life sentence, Ocasio-Justiniano will be required to pay Aguasvivas’ family $60,000 – the amount of money he allegedly admitted to receiving in exchange for his role in her murder.
His plea hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the federal courthouse in Orlando.
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