Left: Jordanish Torres-Garcia mug shot (Seminole County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Deputies say Torres-Garcia is seen masked and armed while kidnapping Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas from her car. (Images: Seminole County Sheriff’s Office)
Weeks after the crime, authorities have formally charged a man with being the armed, masked suspect who forced his way into a woman’s Dodge Durango a short while before law enforcement in another county found her shot to death in the burning vehicle.
Jordanish Torres-Garcia now faces a federal charge of carjacking resulting in death.
Deputies in Seminole County, Florida, previously cast suspicion on Torres-Garcia, 28, but this is the first time that anyone, let alone him, has been charged with kidnapping or killing Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas. It is a pivotal development in a case touching several counties and the territory of Puerto Rico, and has implicated several people in drug charges.
Officials said last week that Kevin Ocasio Justiniano, 28, was suspected of being the driver of the green Acura that rammed Guerrero’s vehicle. Deputies said he and Torres-Garcia were expected to be charged with carjacking resulting in death. Justiniano was initially held on unrelated drug trafficking and weapons charges. His name does not yet appear in federal records. Authorities said in a press conference on Monday that he had left Florida for Puerto Rico on April 13, two days after the kidnapping and murder.
Also, federal court documents state that Torres-Garcia claimed that he was paid $1,500 to kidnap Guerrero and take her to an individual.
“He stated that approximately 30 minutes prior to the carjacking, a subject met with him somewhere near the area of Lake Drive, in Casselberry, and gave him the AR-15 to be used during the carjacking,” they wrote. “According to Garcia, the AR-15 was not loaded.”
Investigators did not discuss who this individual is supposed to be, or whether they think this story is the truth.
As previously reported, Guerrero, a resident of the Miami-Dade County city of Homestead, had driven up to Seminole County on April 11 in the Durango.
But authorities said that a green Acura rammed her at East Lake Drive. She stopped at the red light with Tuskawilla Road. As seen on video, a masked and armed suspect — identified by law enforcement as Torres-Garcia — stepped out of the Acura and entered the Durango.
An hour and 45 minutes later, deputies south in Osceola County received a call for service regarding gunshots and a burning vehicle. It was the Durango. Guerrero was found shot multiple times in the SUV, federal authorities said.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma and U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg of the Middle District of Florida did not elaborate on a motive in their joint press conference Monday, though they elaborated on the complex, multi-jurisdictional investigation. They considered the kidnapping and murder to be targeted.
Authorities previously announced two other arrests unfolding from their work. Investigators believe Giovany Joel Crespo Hernandez was the last person Guerrero spoke to on FaceTime before her murder.
“It’s believed she was on her way to meet Crespo Hernandez at his Casselberry home to deliver money and other items,” deputies said last week. “At this time Crespo Hernandez has not been charged in connection with the carjacking/homicide. He remains incarcerated on charges of Fentanyl trafficking and marijuana with intent to sell.”
His girlfriend, Monicsabel Romero Soto, 27, also faces a drug case for allegedly picking up a package of cocaine.
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