Two facing federal charges in connection to Homestead woman’s carjacking, murder, cops say

Two men are expected to be federally charged with the carjacking, kidnapping and murder of a Homestead woman who was ambushed at a Central Florida red light — and later shot to death and found in her torched car — earlier this month.

Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma told reporters at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that Jordanish Torres-Garcia, 28, owned the 2002 green Acura that had been bumping Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas’ car before the carjacking. A person recorded and witnessed the incident, capturing a masked man wearing a black hoodie exiting the Acura and then pointing a semiautomatic rifle at the driver of the white Dodge Durango in front of the Acura, Guerrero De Aguasvivas.

On April 11, she had driven from Homestead and was stopped at a red light near Winter Springs, a suburban community in Seminole County, when the carjacking occurred. Later that night, her body was found in her burned-out Durango at a construction site off Boggy Creek Road in Osceola County, just south of Orlando.

Another man, Kevin Ocasio Justiniano, 28, was likely behind the wheel of the Acura, Lemma said.

Both men were in custody Tuesday evening and will be facing the federal charges, the sheriff said.

READ MORE: Fourth arrest into Homestead woman’s Central Florida fatal carjacking investigation

Ocasio Justiniano was being held in Puerto Rico on an unrelated automatic weapons possession and drug trafficking warrant. Torres-Garcia, the suspected gunman, was arrested on April 19 in Orange County on an unrelated federal weapons charge.

Detectives linked Ocasio Justiniano to Guerrero De Aguasvivas’ killing because his red Toyota Corolla was found at the murder scene of Juan Luis Cintron Garcia, a tow truck driver, in Orange County, Lemma said. Cintron Garcia was killed the day before Guerrero De Aguasvivas, on April 10.

The motive for Cintron Garcia’s murder isn’t clear, but detectives say he towed the green Acura from an Orange County apartment complex parking lot on March 19.

Lemma said Tuesday he believes that Guerrero De Aguasvivas made the trip to Central Florida to meet with Giovany Crespo Hernandez, a person of interest in the case. Her husband, Miguel Angel Aguasvivas, had initially told detectives that his wife drove to the area to meet with family.

But the Homestead woman’s brother, Luis Fernando Abreu, told detectives his sister was there to “deliver money and other stuff.”

Aguasvivas, Lemma said, is no longer cooperating with investigators.

“We believe our victim was on her way to meet Giovany in Casselberry because the route she was traveling from Homestead is a GPS route that’s routed in and around the location he was at,” Lemma said.

Although investigators were eventually able to locate some of her family, none said they were expecting a visit from her.

While investigators still haven’t concluded the motive for murdering Aguasvivas, Lemma said it’s safe to assume the crime was linked to the illegal narcotics trade.

“Clearly, there’s a drugs and money nexus here,” he said.

Others arrested in the case include:

▪ Crespo Hernandez, 27, who was perhaps the last person Guerrero De Aguasvivas spoke with before her death, police say. He turned himself in Monday night at the Sanford prison in Seminole County. He faces charges of fentanyl trafficking and marijuana possession with intent to sell.

▪ Francisco Estrella Chicon, an Orange County deputy accused of illegally accessing the personal and professional profile information of the lead Seminole County detective on the case. He is accused of sharing that information with Guerrero De Aguasvivas’ husband, Miguel Angel Aguasvivas. Estrella Chicon’s wife is his childhood friend. Estrella Chicon was arrested on April 14 and was released on a total bond of $15,000 last Thursday.

▪ Monicsabel Romero Soto, 27, live-in girlfriend of Crespo Hernandez. Romero Soto faces federal drug charges after three bricks of cocaine were found in a lamp in a package sent from Puerto Rico to a St. Cloud home in Osceola County. She had gone to pick up the package; she was arrested on April 17 and is in jail in Osceola County.