Millionaire Miami property developer took out multiple unsuccessful hits on estranged wife before killing himself as cops closed in
A millionaire real estate developer tried to kill his wife in several failed hits before the FBI spotted him and he committed suicide.
Sergio Pino, who committed suicide in July, was accused of sending a man to kill his estranged wife Tatiana until his 26-year-old daughter Alessandra unknowingly foiled the plan on June 23.
“Please, there’s someone with a gun,” a panicked Alessandra can be heard saying to the 911 operator at the time. “He just pointed a gun at me, they’re still there.”
Authorities believe he arranged the murder plot several times starting in July 2022 by hiring multiple men and even tried to poison her with fentanyl, police said.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 27 years, and something like this… it seemed like something out of a Hollywood movie, but unfortunately this was real life,” said Pinecrest Police Chief Jason Cohen. Fox News digital.
Federal authorities have accused Pino of hiring multiple men to stalk and poison his wife before the June 23 attempt in which alleged hitman Vernon Green, 53, was charged.
Sergio Pino is accused of sending a man to kill his estranged wife Tatiana until his 26-year-old daughter Alessandra unknowingly foiled the plan on June 23.
Authorities believe he arranged the murder plot several times starting in July 2022 by hiring multiple men and even tried to poison her with fentanyl, police said. Federal authorities have accused Pino of hiring multiple men to stalk and poison his wife before the June 23 attempt
A year earlier, a hit man reportedly rammed a rented Home Depot truck into her car in her driveway. Cohen said the driver waited for Tatiana to get home.
The investigation began after this incident after police were “made aware of much of the background to what was going on with Ms. Pino, the allegations that she had been poisoned or drugged by possibly her soon-to-be ex-husband.” Cohen told Fox News Digital.
“It was brought to our attention that this incident here was probably much more than just someone bumping into her while she was coming home,” he told the outlet. “It started to make sense that this was just one piece of that big puzzle.”
A total of nine people, including Green, have been involved in Pino’s plots. Six have been charged with murder-for-hire, while the others face charges of stalking and arson, according to Fox News Digital.
Those arrested include Bayron Bennett, 33; Fausto Villar, 42; Avery Bivins, 36; Clementa Johnson, 47; Diori Barnard, 47; Jerren Keith Howard, 38; Michael Jose Dulfo, 42; and Edner Etienne, 27.
They all face a maximum prison sentence of life in prison.
In July, Bivins agreed to cooperate with authorities and made a recorded phone call to the man he said recruited him for the killing. NBC Miami.
Bivins called Villars, whom he met in a Florida state prison while the former was serving a prison sentence for murder and armed robbery and the latter for armed robbery.
“It will be fine, everything will be fine,” he told Villar.
‘Right away. But the damn smoke has to go away. Everything must disappear, the smoke must disappear. So try to fend off with what you have,” Villar replied.
In July, Bivins agreed to cooperate with authorities and made a recorded phone call to Villar, who he said had recruited him. The FBI moved in after the call to arrest Pino and Villar
Alessandra (pictured with her mother) called the police on June 23 after finding a man with a gun in her home. She can be heard telling the 911 operator at that time. “He just pointed a gun at me, they’re still there.”
Villar had expressed concern that the FBI was already aware of their plot, as several of the nine had already been arrested.
“Why would you, if you get pinched, now this becomes a conspiracy,” he told Bivins on the phone. ‘Now you can’t shake the rap anymore. Your two boys now, or whoever they are, they can shake things off.
“You need to erase your grams. You knew your gram. You delete… delete. Do that for me, erase that. And then I’m going to do Zero Dark Thirty in this area for a while.”
They even discussed what would happen if the FBI showed up at Bivin’s door, with Villar saying, “We need a plan where, let’s say, God forbid, one day they knock on your door, or whatever the case may be, someone has to give me a chance Know it through here, like a code or something, yo.’
According to NBC Miami, the FBI moved in after the phone call to arrest Pino and Villar.
Villars had paid Bivins $75,000 of the $150,000 contract to kill Tatiana. If the murder had been completed successfully, he would have received an additional $150,000 bonus, according to the FBI.
Later in July, Pino shot himself in the bedroom of his Coral Gables waterfront mansion, where Villar’s wife’s roofing company had been doing work on the $8 million estate.
In July, Pino shot himself in the bedroom of his Coral Gables waterfront mansion
Police continue to monitor Tatiana’s home ‘at least a few times a day’ despite her husband’s suicide
“It looks like he saw it coming down. He probably thought he was going to be accused of this,” Cohen told Fox News Digital. “It’s certainly telling in my opinion about someone with a bad conscience, but just my opinion about a 27-year veteran.”
Pino and his wife were married for 30 years before she filed for divorce in April 2022 after she believed he tried to poison her.
Police continue to monitor Tatiana’s home “at least a few times a day” despite her husband’s suicide, Cohen told Fox News Digital.
“We have what we call a watch list… the officers come in and do some sort of outside search to make sure nothing seems out of the ordinary,” he said. “It’s going to remain that way for some time to come, just because there are still a lot of, you know, open and moving parts.”
Lawyers for Pino negatively assessed the “level of law enforcement activity in his hometown,” saying it was “unnecessary” as “we have offered to surrender him.”
The attorney, Sam Rabin, said the claims against his late client “lack” evidence and are simply “rumors and accusations.”
However, Bivins told the FBI that Villar said Pino wanted his wife dead because she rejected his $20 million divorce offer.
According to financial statements, the couple had a net worth between $153 million and $359 million in 2022.