Police Off The Cuff/Real Crime Stories

Millionaire Miami developer dead amid murder for hire allegations.

Duration:: 1h 4m
Broadcast on:: 19 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Millionaire Miami developer dead amid murder for hire allegations #SergioPino #TatianaPino #MurderforHire Before he shot himself in the bedroom of his waterfront Coral Gables mansion Tuesday, prominent South Florida builder and developer Sergio Pino was about to be arrested for soliciting multiple attempts by several individuals to murder his wife before their contentious and lucrative divorce became final, according to federal law enforcement officials. Nine people are now in custody in connection with what the FBI agent in charge called “two murder crews” Pino hired and ordered to carry out the murder of his wife, Tatiana, who filed for divorce in April 2022. “He decided he was going to kill his wife,” said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe at a news conference Wednesday, citing an attempted poisoning with fentanyl, stalking and a botched attempt to injure her with a rented flatbed truck as she drove home from a divorce court hearing in August 2023. But it was in June 2024 when “hitmen” who were alleged to be paid $300,000 followed Tatiana home, where one of them got out of his vehicle armed with a firearm, and chased the car she was driving, but was unsuccessful because Tatiana made it into her home, Lapointe said. 💯 Join our mission to uncover the truth in crime! Support Police Off the Cuff on Patreon for exclusive content and insider access. Click now and become a part of our detective squad: https://www.patreon.com/policeoffthecuff 💬 Did you like this video? Let me know in the comments below! ✅ Subscribe to Police off the Cuff right now! Click here: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliceofftheCuff?sub_confirmation=1 Or become a YouTube Member to get access to perks here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKo80Xa1PYTc23XN_Yjp8pA/join --------------- Welcome to the Official YouTube Channel of Police off the Cuff This is where the veil of mystery on high-profile cases is lifted through the sharp insights of seasoned law enforcement professionals and where real crime meets real analysis. This is your destination for exploring the complexities of true crime stories, illuminated by the rich experience and street wisdom of those who have walked the thin blue line. At the helm is retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a figure of authority in the crime investigation arena, with a diverse background that spans across acting, broadcasting, and academia. Bill's profound knowledge and keen analytical skills, combined with his empathetic approach, make each story not just heard but felt. Phil's extensive investigative experience, coupled with his genuine passion and characteristic Brooklyn charm, adds depth and relatability to the discussions. ➡️ Here we navigate the intricate web of the nation's most captivating crime stories, offering not just stories, but an education on the realities of criminal investigation. Their combined expertise provides a unique lens through which the stories are told, offering insights that only those with firsthand experience can provide. Join us on this journey into the heart of true crime, where every episode promises a deep dive into the minds of criminals and the tireless efforts of law enforcement to bring them to justice. --------------- 📲 Follow Police off the Cuff on social media: Instagram ▶️ https://www.instagram.com/policeoffthecuff Facebook ▶️ https://www.facebook.com/Policeoffthecuff-312794509230136/ Twitter ▶️ https://twitter.com/policeoffthecuf 🎧 Dive deep into true crime with Police Off the Cuff Podcast. Join retired NYPD expert Bill Cannon as he dissects infamous cases with insider insight: https://anchor.fm/otcpod1 ☑️ Support Police Off the Cuff and help us bring you more captivating crime stories. Every contribution makes a difference! Choose your preferred way to donate: Venmo: https://venmo.com/William-Cannon-27 PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/policeoffthecuff1gma --------------- 📚 Disclaimer: This video may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. --------------- #PoliceOffTheCuff

"My dad works in B2B marketing. "He came by my school for career day "and said he was a big row as man. "Then he told everyone how much he loved "calculating his return on ad spend. "My friends still laughing at me to this day." - Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linked in, the place to be, to be. (upbeat music) - Hello everyone and welcome to Police Off The Cuff Real Crime Stories. I'm your host, retired NYPD Sergeant Bill Cannon, a 27 year veteran of the NYPD. Tonight we have a really interesting case coming out of Miami, Florida. And this man here, who is a builder, a developer, Sergio Pino, is sort of the protagonist in this case. I pulled that word out of mycology is, but he's involved in, this is his wife Tatiana, and he was going to be charged with murder for hire, going back to 2019. And it's a whole twisted web, as these cases usually are, where really people just don't think about the consequences of their actions. Or they believe that they can outsmart law enforcement in committing a murder. And we've followed so many of these cases before on Police Off The Cuff Real Crime Stories, and they never get away with it. No matter how slick they think they are, they never get away with it. And what it's about, you know, I'm not gonna define that, 'cause we have a great guest on tonight who's gonna define that. This is the thumbnail, you can see, I sort of let the cat out of the bag, the surprise Dr. Debbie Goodman's gonna be on the show. But million of Miami developers, Sergio Pino, well, I didn't wanna give that up too early too, so I won't read the whole thumbnail. Anyway, I'm gonna try to get right into this show. So hold onto your hats, hold onto your loved ones, hold onto your next door neighbor, if you need your service dog, whatever you have to hold onto to feel safe, 'cause you're about to enter true crime from a police perspective. You're about to enter the off the cuff zone, the police off the cuff zone. (dramatic music) There has to be some common sense. - Yes, sir, the other cars don't intend to crash by the driver. - We still don't know before the trailer. (dramatic music) (intense music) - You know, I'm gonna get right into this show, and if we have with me tonight my co-host, it's a little bit late for him, 'cause he is an academic, after all. But I'm gonna bring on retired NYPD Sergeant Michael Geary, professor at Alberta's Magnus College in Connecticut, all around nice guy, Lord Degree, let's bring him on the show. Mike, welcome to the show. - Hey, Billy, good evening. Thank you, have me on. - Well, we also have with us another academic. She's been on the show numerous times. She's a fan, favorite, and you know, I gave her, you know, one make a woman smile, tell her that she lost weight. But it happens to be true, she did lose weight. So without any further ado, I wanna welcome to the show, Dr. Debbie Goodman, welcome, Doc. - Good evening, thank you so much, Sergeant Bill, Professor Mike, our viewers, it's always an honor to join you. - You know, Dr. Debbie, one of the things about this case, and I was, I'm reading up on it today, and I have later on, I'll bring out the rest affidavit. But this is your neighborhood, this is your hood. And so this really affects you, and you, I'm sure you know or know of this powerful developer, multi-millionaire Sergio Pino. And he, like many other people that we followed in these murder for higher cases, or people that think they can just kill a loved one, for whatever the reason being, they, he thinks, and they think they can get away with it. And the law was closing in. Dr. Debbie, why don't you give us a little overview of what this case means? In the eyes of a criminologist, which is what you are? - Certainly, well again, thank you so much for having me on, and I'm delighted to join you. You know, this case, obviously for me, is a local case here in South Florida, and I didn't realize until a few days ago, the far-reaching nature of this, and making its way into a national platform, when I was asked to discuss the case on a national platform. But I had been following it, Sergeant Bill, for quite some time, and a couple of the key points, let's say, to just refresh our viewers. So the Pino, Sergio, and Tatiana are certainly a prominent couple here in the South Florida area, where they reside is referred to as coco plum. It's extremely prestigious and lavish, whereby residences begin in the $10 million range, upwards of 30 million. So just to give a glimpse of the monetary side here, which we might use as a discussion point later on in the conversation, but as you mentioned in the intro, Mr. Pino himself has become highly regarded in the building and construction industry having created this multi-million dollar business, located here in the Coral Gables area of South Florida. So where we begin perhaps is with an initial allegation from Mrs. Tatiana Pino, whereby she had become sick and repeatedly visited hospitals in a two-year span, upwards of six times in the hospital for illness unknown, until it was determined through blood and urine tests that she had been with the residual effects of fentanyl. And when asked, and again, as the viewers know, of course, fentanyl, synthetic opioid, it's considered 100 times the potency, according to DEA of heroin. And so when she was asked how possibly could fentanyl have entered her system, she said she believed her husband was poisoning her. So that's one area. Then we move into a secondary area, whereby as we speak, nine people are facing federal conspiracy charges, each of whom is in some manner employed by or associated with Sergio Pino, for the purpose of, as you said at the onset, murder for hire. So that's the secondary issue. And now the tertiary issue bringing us to the present is a mere two days ago, as FBI agents were literally on the Pino residents about to conduct an arrest after having two search warrants, one of which was at the Pino residents, and the second of which was at the Pino business, just prior to them making the arrest, Mr. Sergio Pino self-inflicted with a gunshot wound. So here we are, present day, Mrs. Tatiana Pino is alive, her husband is not, there are a lot of allegations and they're deciphering fact from fiction. And it's almost like something out of a movie, and yet it's real life. - You know, Dr. Debbie, what this also smells of, of course, and one of the things I read which was quite interesting is that he had offered her 20 million as part of the war settlement. And he apparently is worth a hell of a lot more than that in the 100 to 150, 300 million, whatever it is. He says much less than 300, but he was somewhere in the 150 million. So obviously someone who has been married to him for 30 years, I'm not taking 20 mil, I want at least half of your fortune. And that could be why he came up with the idea. And first, you know, with fentanyl, he was probably giving it to her, spoon-feeding it to her, if you will, at a very low dosage and probably increasing it so that it wouldn't be found out some way. But all it did was make her sick, and then he had to move on to the plan B. Mike, your thoughts here as you contemplate this whole murder for hire? - Well, you know, this is the kind of thing we've seen many times before, where you have a couple that's dysfunctional, and one party wants to give her to the other. And even no matter how well-educated these people are, no matter how accomplished they are, it seems to work against them. They have a tremendous confidence, and they feel that they can accomplish this and now smart the police. And I've said this before. I said it to you, I've said it to Phil. If, you know, Albert Einstein wanted to kill Mrs. Einstein, no matter how brilliant a physicist he was, he would get caught by the police, because what he does is one thing, what they do is another. So when you enter the police officers around, the homicide detective's realm, their world, they're gonna find you out. You know, there's no way with the medical testing that Dr. Goodman pointed out to and the circumstances. It smells a lot like a couple that's dysfunctional, and one wants to save their fortune. And we've seen this before, and people feel like they can get away with it. And with our modern technology, with cell phone tracking, with the DNA, with all the tests that you can do, it usually ends up quite the opposite. They usually get caught. And in this case, you now have a gentleman who's now self-inflicted and the family's devastated, because now they have their lost their father, their mother was sick, and it just throws everyone's life, you know, upside down. It's a shame that people who are this accomplished and who may have done such wonderful things for people by building homes, quality homes is now, you know, considered, was considered an attempted murder suspect. It's really a shame. - I want to play this from CBS News Miami, and then we'll comment on it afterwards. - So, a Miami developer found dead at his cocoa plum home. A law enforcement source confirms to us, prominent home builder Sergio Pino shot himself when FBI agents were about to arrest him. - Pino was accused of being involved in a murder for higher plot against his wife during a nasty divorce. CBS News Miami's Yvonne Taylor joins us live right now from Coral Gables, where one of the raids took place this morning, Yvonne. - And this is where it all happened, Elia and Lauren. Federal agents came here to arrest 67-year-old Sergio Pino, but the prominent developer never made it out in handcuffs. Sergio Pino's body was pulled out of his house under a black tarp Tuesday before noon. FBI agents said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They found his body in an upstairs bedroom of this house. - This is unfortunately a stain on our community. - It was a scene that left this cocoa plum neighborhood in tall shock. It began at 6 a.m. when the FBI SWAT team arrived at the house at Isla Torada Boulevard to execute an arrest operation related to a murder for higher investigation that began in fall of 2023. - But it is quite a disruption and a sad day for everybody. - The bizarre stand-up lasted hours with agents firing off numerous flash bands and calling over loudspeakers for Pino to come out. That went out until almost 11 a.m. when agents finally made entry into the house itself. Sergio Pino was in the middle of a contentious divorce proceeding Tatiana Pino, his wife of more than 30 years, accused him of making threats. In this surveillance video, a rental truck driver deliberately smashed into Tatiana's vehicle. Her attorney said she was getting ready to head to our court hearing. Federal agents arrested four men, including Byron Bennett, Jeremy Howard, Edner Etienne and Michael Dofo. Another arrest occurred early Tuesday morning at this Kotler Bay House. - There were three loud bangs. Lily Shen told me neighbors walk up to all this activity at 6 a.m. It was the same time Pino's house was being raided. Neighbors identified a man as 42-year-old Fausto Villar. - The family started coming out very peacefully. They all came in, surrendered. Fausto Villar was handcuffed and he was put in a police vehicle. The wife was kept for questioning. - The FBI confirmed Villar's arrest at his house without mentioning his name or any direct link to Sergio Pino. - They've been here for seven months, eight months. - Villar's neighbors were shocked by the way he was removed from his house. Meanwhile, Sergio Pino's attorney sent a statement, confirming his client took his own life and the level of law enforcement activity was unprecedented and unnecessary, especially since we had offered to surrender him. Today's event marked a tragic ending. To an investigation, we were confident we could successfully defend. There were rumors and allegations but what was lacking was evidence. - And we also reach out to Tatiana Pino's lawyer, Raymond Raful for comments. He responded by saying, under the circumstances, we are not making any comments at this time. - So, the reporter says what was lacking was evidence but I think if you read the 15-page arrest affidavit of the two groups that he hired to kill his wife, I would think that there's plenty of evidence. And one of the things that is amazing is like to me is he's a really educated man who has very accomplished a multimillionaire and high as thugs, thugs from the street to kill his wife. I mean, do you think these thugs are gonna stand up to questioning once they're facing life in prison 'cause this is a murder for hire? That's life in prison, right? You think they're gonna be stand up, guys? They're gonna give him up quicker than, you know, real quick, real quick, Dr. Debbie. - You're right, Sergeant Bill, it's almost, you know, we shake our heads in disbelief because there's so many things that are just hard to believe yet, here we are, you know, hard to believe that this accomplished family would be involved in a murder for hire. I mean, we understand as a society, if there's marital discord or disharmony and if decisions are made, then divorce proceedings, you know, should ensue in the judicial, legal, hopefully peaceful manner. But the fact that it would come to this is really astonishing and, you know, to introduce again some of the classroom terms. The three of us are all professors and certainly the viewers are well-versed on a lot of what we discussed. But remember these two elements we always say with every case, men's rea, act as reas. The men's rea in this case is present. Why? Because that's the intent. This is no accident. People don't just come together, eight, nine individuals. They're calling it Cruz, C-R-E-W-S, two sets of Cruz to total these eight to nine people in collusion to do this is unbelievable. And of course, apparently each of whom was to be paid. At some point, what I heard recently as of just a couple hours ago, they were to be paid if Mrs. Pino was to be killed before the next divorce proceeding. And so that's astonishing in and of itself. And then of course the act is rea, the action. There have been several actions here. They, how does Fentanyl get into her system? And she was certain as to its cause. Her husband, she alleged, was poisoning her. And how does her car, upon entering her own home driveway, get rammed by a flatbed truck? And thankfully, she wasn't seriously harmed and maintained her composure, whereby she was able to identify the driver as somebody who worked or wasn't associate of her husband. And by the way, we haven't mentioned yet, but there were also arson related behaviors at her sister's home, where by two cars were set ablaze and ends by some of these eight to nine people. So the whole thing is just truly unbelievable. And yet we go back perhaps, because the three of us would wanna know and certainly the viewers, the why? You know, those three little letters, but it's not always easy to understand why. I know we're thinking possibly this monetary issue whereby a lot of money is somewhere in the range, as you said, between 150 to 300 million as the net worth and does one not want to pay the other? And yet we also have the theme of this entitlement as if people can somehow rationalize or justify their behavior. It's just absolutely beyond measure. - You know, it's amazing to me that the guy that had hit her with the truck, you know, driveway, she recognizes them. Brilliant, brilliant, highest someone that I know to kill me and make it unsuccessful. So now I can ID them and we can connect the whole thing, the nexus back to the husband. - You know, just unbelievable, Mike. - Well, it's like the Adelson case. Remember with the getting rid of the Mrs. Adelson, the grandma, the getting rid of the-- - The sun and the wall. - Yeah, it's so sad. And when you look at the video of the car backing, the truck backing into her, her car on the driveway, as Dr. Gooden pointed out, when you look at it, it's like, that's the best you can do. You know, like, oh my God, like, I mean, I can get a sixth grader to do a better job than that. Like, this is the gang that couldn't shoot straight. This is how his poor, the thank goodness, and ineffective they were. And that probably saved, you know, Tatiana's life. But this is the effort that they put out. This is really sad. And the idea that, you know, he was gonna save, you know, $50 million, $30 million, $40 million. You know, remember, part of the fact pattern is, after their marriage, he had her sign a post-nuptial agreement as she signed it. And she was gonna contest that now. But the weird thing is, if she did actually sign a post-nuptial agreement, giving up some rights to alimony, if that was entered into fully and fairly, and as an adult, that would actually be in effect. And he wouldn't have to pay her what, you know, what she gave up. So it's kind of strange. But it's a really sad commentary on this person who's so powerful and has so much, and so many political connections in Florida is thinking that they're gonna get away with killing the mother of their children, the lady that he avowed to spend the rest of his life with, and who is a very prominent member of the community, he's gonna get away with this. Like, come on, like, you know, what are you doing? - They all think they're going to, Mike, they all think they're going to, they wouldn't do it. - It's crazy. - I wanna play this from local news, Miami news station 10. - About the murder for higher plot involving prominent South Florida developers, or TOP, you know, you know, shot and killed himself Tuesday during an FBI raid that is Coco Flom Manchin. - Today, agent said that the developer had tried to have his estranged wife killed multiple times. Let's get right to local sense, Christina Vasquez live in Coral Gables with our top story, Christina. - FBI, Miami hosting a late afternoon news conference. It's said to provide you community members context to its case. - This case is about a husband, Mr. Pino, who decided after years of marriage that he was gonna kill his wife. These efforts were thwarted. She is safe and she no longer needs to live in fear for her life. - FBI, Miami's special agent in charge says wealthy South Florida developer Sergio Pino was at the head of a murder for higher scheme. His target is a strange wife, Tatiana, the pair in contentious divorce proceedings since 2022. - To think of the scheme, think of it in three parts. - US attorney, Marcanzi LaPointe said when they arrived at Pino's Coral Gables house Tuesday, agents were cleared to pick 'em up on a probable cause arrest. Charges would have included conspiracy to commit murder. - When the FBI closed in on him, he apparently, and of course, tragically committed suicide rather than face justice. - They say Pino hired two separate crews of hitment to try and kill Tatiana, crew one, which includes Baron Bennett, hired help on Sergio's yacht, responsible for vehicle arson, obtained the fentanyl he used to poison his wife. And when that failed, rams her car with a flatbed truck. - While she was inside, we'd think at that point, once the first crew failed, Mr. Pino would have said, "Okay, this is done." - After crew one was busted, after Pino was already under investigation, they say, "Underturd," he hired crew two to include Fausto Valar, who did roofing work for Sergio. The contract was to shoot her to death, $150,000 of front. - Mrs. Pino had to die before their next divorce proceedings. Another 150 grand, if her murder did not connect back to him. But when a gunman arrived, a snafu out walked their adult daughter. - He pointed the gun at the daughter's head. Literally, she was looking at the bow of a gun. Ultimately, he decided he was not gonna kill the daughter, or was not the contract. - And thankfully, she was doing just fine. They said, "Back here, live in Colle Gables, "outside of that home, you can see the evidence "of the FBI's efforts. "Yesterday, a total of nine people, they say, "are involved almost half already indicted "of the most recent arrest, two of them, "facing their first appearance "before a federal judge this afternoon." - Unbelievable, right? And of course, he pulls the gun on the daughter, and that's not the contract. I won't get paid if I kill her, but just think of the chances that Sergio Pino took in hiring these guys, that they could have shot the wrong person and been like, "Oh, I killed the wrong person." This is what you're dealing with when you do a murder for hire, Dr. Debbie. - Yeah, again, just still shocked and baffled by it all, but I was also thinking about Professor Mike's point when he brought up a case of a similar nature where we have his family members. He brought up the Adelson case, but again, the family member who wants to either do harm to another family member, who wants to kill a family member, right? We call that Familicide, but I'm also thinking about cases, Sergeant Bill, that we've talked about on your great show, and one of whom, of course, was Alex Murdock. And so there just appears to be this mentality, right? Of, well, let me justify and rationalize why I want to kill my wife and my son, and because I'm an attorney, I'll get away with it, right? It almost seems like that's the summation of his mentality. And then we look at Laurie Valleau DeBell and a mom of two children, son and daughter, and seemingly she viewed her children as disposables and impediments to her marriage and just wanted to discard them. And most recently, we've talked about on your platform, of course, the sad and tragic case of the Oklahoma moms, and they lost their lives by whom? By grandma, Ms. Adams, who allegedly orchestrated that whole gruesome killing over child custody. And I'm still kind of curious about the Suzanne and Barry Morfue case where Suzanne is now deceased and Barry Morfue had been arrested. Her husband released and yet Suzanne Morfue dies by this tranquilizer drug used for animals and Barry himself is a hunter who had that drug. So there are just too many cases whereby we have these family members perpetrating truly acts of terror against their own family members. And I think the common thread, as both of you have mentioned, is there's this sense of how they justify and rationalize it. They think they're much smarter than local state and federal law enforcement officers. And as we know, that's just simply not the case. So thankfully, we have justice and we have our excellent men and women in our field who will be very diligent and dutiful in bringing justice forward. - Absolutely, someone in the chat just also mentioned Jennifer Dulos, another case that was right. - Yeah, very good. - Case and you know, the husband committed suicide and his girlfriend, Traconis, just was found guilty and she was received a heavy sentence for her involvement in that. You know, there are just too many ways for law enforcement to catch you these days because I don't know a single person within my scope of influence. I don't know if that's the proper word, but that doesn't own a cell phone. That doesn't own a computer. That isn't on social media. Right there, you're getting caught. If you use all those things and you're thinking gonna get away with a murder, well then you better go back to the caves because if you're using a cell phone, if you're using a vehicle, if you're using a laptop or a computer, all of those things are things that the police can track and get search warrants to search into to see who you've been corresponding with, who you've been text messaging with, what searches have you been doing on your computer? How about your bank account? You think a withdrawal of $150,000 cash might raise a red flag here and then like? - Yeah, Billy, you know, they don't realize that people think of their cell phone, oh it's really private, it's just between me and the other person, where their emails, where their text messages, no. That's actually, you can actually catch that with a, by downloading from the, all the information in the laptop, all the information in the phone through a search warrant. They don't understand that it's not private. You're not whispering to somebody. Now you take that, plus you take now DNA technology, which we can see in many of these other cases, it makes it so difficult and genetic genealogy. It makes it so difficult to get away with this stuff because even though the perpetrators are smart and they're skillful and they wanna do this, but that's, but murder isn't their world. Being a lawyer, being an attorney, being a builder, being a housewife, doing something else, that's what they're good at. That's what they know. They don't know the world of homicide. They don't know all that, you know, criminal profiling, they don't know DNA. They don't know cell phone technology. They don't know all of these things. And when they enter that world, they're lost and they don't even realize it. And it's, you know, it's not that difficult sometimes to figure out a motive, greed is, you know, is often a motive in you to marry a couple that's on the rocks and they're divorcing. Come on, you don't have to be sure a lot of columns to have a figure out who suspect number one. Come on, it's scary. - Exactly, you know, one of the things Mike, I just wanna mention to our audience is like, even when law enforcement interviews people, they will never interview you in any meaningful way, in any other place than their office or their precinct or with the FBI and their office, because it's almost like a basketball team playing on their home court. They wanna play on their home court because that's where they feel comfortable. The defendant feels comfortable in his own home. So obviously don't interview in his own home because that's not your comfort zone, if you're the investigator or the interrogator, you wanna bring him to your home court and make that person feel uncomfortable. So that you can get and solicit information that's necessary to prove your case. Dr. Debbie. - Very well said. I again just applaud our local state and federal law enforcement officers and agents, not only on this case, but all of the cases that have preceded this one and the ones that will be forthcoming that we'll talk about in the future. But for me, it's, you know, as a criminologist, it's always about the mindset, the mindset of the criminal. First, you know, there's a lot of steps and stages to first thinking about the crime, making the plans to carry it out, actually carrying it out, and then the aftermath. So here we are, and thankfully, a lot of the steps and stages were intercepted and Mrs. Pino is alive. But I must say, because I always think about victimology here, you know, the trauma, obviously, that she has endured. But also, let's not forget the two daughters that they share and the devastation that these two young ladies must be going through that A, they now have come to the realization and knowledge of what potentially their father did and was planning to do. And then, of course, his self-infliction, whereby now they don't have their father. So it's sad, it's shocking, it's startling, just across the board. But once again, because of excellent law enforcement, she's alive. And who knows how long it may have continued had they not intercepted. So, you know, the hope to, obviously, moving forward is how can we prevent these things from happening? It's just not really something on anybody's radar because if we look at data and we look at statistics about marriages, the data suggests that one out of two will fail. And to think that a possible resolution for people is to do this, it's just always shocking to me the thought patterns and the processes of how people think and then ultimately the actions and the steps they take. - Absolutely, I want to play this from local news 10 in Miami. - The developer said he'll penal. The Fed's now saying the violence began after Pino's estranged wife refused to accept a $20 million divorce settlement. The couple's net worth once estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But we're going to see that Vasquez is alive, but what else she's learned, Christina. - New federal court documents also reveal how much money had already been dispersed to these alleged hitmen pertaining to that most recent murder contract. - For the murder, for the crime, there's a motive. - Why would wealthy developer Sergio Pino be so desperate to kill his wife of more than 30 years? - The level of brazenness. - Federal investigators say he would hire teams of hitmen to try and murder her. - Multiple attempts on the victim's life. - In a word, money. That's the implication in a criminal complaint for Fausto Cuba Valar, he performed roofing work for Pino, one of nine arrested in a murder for higher scheme agents say Pino orchestrated amid contentious divorce proceeding. - Makes a great sense that the divorce had something to do with it. - According to Valar, Tatiana Pino wanted half of what Pino owned would not settle for the offered $20 million. Pino would most recently place a 300 gram bounty on her head, say investigators, of which two cash payments were dispersed, or 30,000 and 45,000 up front during two separate meetings. - Mrs. Pino had to die before their next divorce proceedings. - Valar gives the job to former prison mate, Avery Bivens, who recruits others, to include Vernon Green, the gunman, say investigators in last month's most recent and failed murder attempt. - Norma's salt on his wife and daughter. - Valar indicated to Bivens he could not get more money from Pino because law enforcement was monitoring Pino. As FBI Tuesday move in on Pino's home for a search and arrest operation, the wealthy businessman commits suicide. - And again, a total of nine arrested and FBI Miami special agent in charge said those cases will move forward that irrespective of the death of Sergio Pino, he thinks they will be successful in their prosecution because he's confident, he says, in the evidence against them. Reporting live for you tonight. - So, one of the things that I wanna just bring up is that people sometimes that deal with criminals, the criminals may turn on them and just say, you know something, why should I do this job? I'll just kill him and take his money. 'Cause he wants me to kill somebody. Let me go kill him and I'll burglarize his house and no one will suspect me. I mean, so you're really playing with fire is what I'm trying to say. When you hire the criminal element. Here's this guy, he's a roofer. But I also sideline in murder. If you pay me the right price, I'll dump my roofing job and I'll kill your wife for you. You know, like I know I'm being flippant, but that's how easy it is. And it turns out the roofer wasn't prison. I don't know if Sergio Pino knew that. Maybe he did because that's where probably looked him up, have criminal will travel and he hires his cellmate or another criminal from his prison days to do the hit with him. So this is a, as Alec Murdoch said, what a tangled web we weave when we choose to deceive. Wow, I can't believe I remembered that little limerick. Mike, your thoughts? Billy, you know, this is really crazy 'cause this man is worth somewhere between 150 million, 300 million, and he's hiring the lowest hanging fruit. He's not going with a professional. And there's no honor among thieves, like you say. That guy who's doing the roofing, he knows his way around that house. He could probably leave a door unlocked, a window unlocked if he's working over there. You know, what are you doing? How far a field are you out of normal, rational thinking behavior when you think you're just gonna hire somebody, oh, 30,000 here, 45,000 there? Meanwhile, you're worth almost maybe 150 or 300 million dollars and you're gonna pay somebody that amount of money to do a hit for you. And you think that these people are gonna be keeping their mouths shut? Are you out of your mind? Like how far a field have you gone in down crazy lane? You know, down that road. It's bizarre, it's smart, and it's accomplished that guy is. When he's trying to figure out a homicide, a way to kill his wife, he's making the most insanely idiotic mistakes by hiring people. There's no water among these. He's gonna hire these people. It's dependously idiotic. And thank goodness that other gentleman did not shoot his daughter when he had a gun pointed at his daughter's head. Thank God, the perp, that guy who was probably in prison recently actually had more on the ball than, you know, Mr. Pino. Really scared. Mike, he was just honoring a contract. Right, exactly. He could shoot her. I'm paying to shoot the wife. So if I shoot her, I'm not gonna get paid. That's, he had no honor. It wasn't that he said, oh, this is the wrong person. He wasn't gonna get paid if he killed the daughter. He's only getting paid 'cause the contract is to kill the wife. Well, it just reminds me of an away. And like, as I said earlier, you're playing with fire when you deal with criminals. Whether it's to go your lawn, paint your house, don't hire criminals to do jobs here, right? This reminds me of like, these criminals, like we've seen numerous times in our police career. Drug rips, two drug dealers meet each other. One guy has a kilo to sell to the other guy. The other guy says, why don't I just kill 'em? And I don't have to pay 'em. And I'll take the kilo. Easy, right? That's what you're dealing with. And that's what this guy, he's your Pino, is dealing with and hiring two groups of thugs to kill his wife. Dr. Debbie, I know we're taking you in the mud here. You're not used to these police stories, but we've seen this stuff before. - No, I know. And I certainly respect and applaud both of you and all of our amazing men and women of law enforcement. It's just, again, the mindset of, how does this conversation even start? It would have to start with Mr. Pino's thought to kill his wife. This is his wife of 32 years, the mother of his daughters. How do we go from being in a loving, wonderful marriage to okay through the years? See, we don't even know what promulgated the divorce. I was looking for that to see if we had that information, but it hasn't been disclosed yet because I would have had a different theory. I've created the theory we've discussed on the platform called JAR, JAR, jealousy, anger, revenge. I actually created it first in relation to the Kohlberger case, thinking that's potentially what motivated him. Now, sometimes in circumstances such as this, back to our familiar side conversation, if there is some type of jealousy, what would prompt jealousy in a marriage? Well, potentially if there's infidelity. Now, there's not been any disclosure of that nor evidence of that, but if there should be or had there been, that may be different theory leading us in that direction. And then of course, I think the anger in the revenge piece certainly apply here was Mr. Pino so angry that Tatiana Pino was filing for the divorce and as she maintained shortly thereafter, she started getting sick and ultimately this $20 million settlement dispute did that lead him to the revenge aspect, but it's still just always startling to me, whether it's this case or the other 100 we've talked about or we'll talk about in the future, how individuals come up with this as an actual thought and then they think it through to the level of really taking the action by hiring these other eight nine people and what are these people thinking that they're smarter than law enforcement, they'll get away with it. I can almost guarantee at this level is we're speaking, they're speaking and deciding they want to tell, you know, their side of the story and point fingers, so we're gonna see a lot of that happening next, I believe. - Absolutely, and after all, Dr. W, who these days can live on 20 million? (laughing) - That was a joke, it took you crazy. I thought I had taped the lay there, it was like, there was no action. I was just really, really tough to live on 20 million and I mean, I'm saying that facetiously, but obviously, you know, when we hear these numbers thrown around, 20 million, yeah, I'll take it, you know, but then sue later on to get more, you know, but this wasn't really contentious divorce and you know, you always remember the cliche, money is the root of all evil and sometimes you see that it is, it brings out the worst in people, you know, that they're willing to kill his wife 32 years over money and get rid of her and he was willing to kill his sister-in-law and almost had his daughter killed, you know, erroneously by one of these thugs, but then because he had, it was a thug with a conscience that was like, no, that's her name's not on the contract, you know, it's the wife. So, you know, I know I'm being, making a joke out of us, but this is not a joke, this is very serious and it could have ended, well, it didn't tragically, the Sergio killed himself, you know, and if he didn't think that murder and murder for hire was a way out of this, he'd still be alive living on his 150 or 200 million, whatever the amount of money he has and maybe given his wife 50 million or 75 million and they can both live happily ever after, you know. I know he's 67 years old and I guess 75 million wouldn't be enough to the, you know, 20 more years he has on this earth to make it to that, whatever and he had to kill his wife. - Mike. - Yeah, that's the strangest thing. It's like you've got someone with so much the money, the prestige, he's got the connections, the political connections and this is what he does. This is his final solution to a divorce problem. Rather than figuring out how can I change my life, how can I write a check? I'd remember if my wife and I are getting divorced and she's gonna be the custodial parent, I have to provide for her, okay, maybe I don't like her, but she is the mother of my two children. I have to provide my two daughters and I'm gonna fight over that. You know, it's remarkable, remarkably small, you know, in a weird way and so from this small little, you know, like Dr. Debbie says, the anger, the jealousy, he's angry because she turned him down. She said no and now it's gonna be really contentious and every time it goes into court, it might make the newspapers. Her attorney might hold a little press conference, do that sort of thing and he's really angry. Maybe it's about the loss of control too, about stemming from the anger. So I believe Dr. Debbie is really onto that because his world, he's no longer in control of his world. His wife is rocking his world, he's gonna have to take care of his daughters. You might have a judge who maybe he's not friendly with, maybe he doesn't know, maybe he has no political connections. He can't manipulate that person and he's gonna be at the mercy of a judge and citing how much money he's got to give to his wife and his children and maybe he just actually can't take it. In some ways, as much as we are very sophisticated, our brains are very sophisticated, maybe what it really comes right down to is like you say, anger, jealousy, some really primeval things and nothing so elaborate. It just comes down to those little basic things. You know, Mike, about three years ago and I don't know why I'm remembering this story but we interviewed Sammy the bull Gravanna who was the underbores to the Gambino crime family and he told us a story about when he was an up-and-coming mobster and he lived at a house with his wife and he had no money whatsoever and some guy came up to him and he said, I think my house is getting raided and he goes, I got $350,000 worth of marijuana in my garage. Would you take it and hold it for me? And hide it for me. And he goes, yeah, sure. So he loads it up in his car, he brings it to his house. Sure enough, the guy's house gets raided and he doesn't have the weed there. So he's very thankful and Sammy brings the weed back to him and a guy gives him $5,000. And Sammy says, you know, I thought at that point, he goes, why didn't I just shoot him in the back of the head and take all of the marijuana, the $350,000 worth of weed? Instead, he gave me just $5,000 because I guess I'm a gangster with a conscience. And I always thought that that was somewhat funny like that, here he is thinking, yeah, I could have just killed him and taken all, but instead, maybe I learned a lesson from that. I only got $5,000, I could have had $350,000. I don't know. I don't know what the moral of that story is, but it sort of is swimming in the same pond as this guy. You know? Yeah, I am. Yeah, I'm sorry. Thank you, sorry, Sergeant Bell. I just wanted to piggyback with Professor Mike's point. And I think it's an excellent point. And I absolutely agree. I think it could come down to exactly what Professor Mike said about this loss of control. And that may have indeed been the tipping point, the loss of control coupled with the monetary circumstance led him to believe that this was the right pathway. You know, back to saying things in clichés, I have met the enemy, it is I. And perhaps that became the ultimate demise here. Absolutely. Folks, this is police off the cuff, real crime stories. If you like real crime, true crime from a police perspective, then you're in the right place. And if you're not subscribed to us, go on our YouTube, hit that subscribe button. Give us a thumbs up, ring that bell. And if you want to contribute to us financially, we have a Patreon with four different levels. And we also have a YouTube channel membership with five different levels. And we appreciate all our fans, our subscribers, our friends that support us. And also just subscribe. It's free to subscribe. That's all you have to do is hit that subscribe button. You know, I wanted to read a little bit of the-- this is from the arrest affidavit. And on the background, it says, since July of 2022, law enforcement has been investigating Sergio Pino for orchestrating multiple contracts to kill as a strange wife, victim number one, and have assisted both residents of Miami-Dade County. Events surrounding the contracts to kill victim one include, but are not limited to, more than one attempt to poison victim one, two separate vehicle assets at victim number one, sister's residence. I hit and run at victim one's residence in Pinecrest, Florida, the mailing of a threatening letter to victim one, and the assault on victim one and the daughter of Pino and victim one, victim two, with a firearm at victim one's residence, all occurring since 2019 through June 2024. Law enforcement also discovered that victim one had been poisoned with fentanyl through the tampering of her prescribed medication. As a result of this investigation, law enforcement secured the arrest of Bayron Bennett, Jarren Howard, Michael Dolfo, and Edna Etienne here and after the Howard group for stalking, arson, and the use of interstate facilities in aid of racketeering. So all of these individuals are facing, I would think, life in prison for their acts to facilitate this crime of a murder for hire. The government doesn't like murders for hire. They look down upon them. It's not a good thing that you're getting paid to kill someone. So what do they do, Mike? They jack up the felony from a B to an A, right? And you are eligible for life in prison. You want to speak upon that, Mike? You have that law degree, you must use it. - Thank you, yeah. It's one thing when someone wants to kill someone, someone wants to rob a house, somebody wants to, a burglar's a house, somebody wants to rob, somebody wants to deal with narcotics. It's another thing when you engage in a conspiracy. A conspiracy is much more dangerous than one idiotic person or dangerous person trying to commit a crime. The more people that you get involved in the conspiracy, the more likely it is to be successful. And in this case, you've got, except for this case where you got the gang that couldn't shoot straight, or you had three separate gangs that couldn't shoot straight, it's how pathetic they were. But yeah, they're looking at probably 25 to life. And if they get off with 25 years or 20 years in a plea bargain, they would be lucky. They should consider themselves lucky. If I was their attorney, one of their attorneys, I'd be like, you know what, go in there. And we're gonna do, we're gonna plead guilty. We're gonna give it all up. We're gonna give everybody else up for the smallest amount of time, the least amount of time. But you know, nobody's got any honor. Nobody's gonna keep their mouth shut. This is not the code of Omartha in La Costa Nostra. Now this doesn't count at all. This is every guy for himself right now swimming around, trying to avoid the getting swallowed up in the criminal justice system. But yeah, 25 to life is probably appropriate in this case for what they did. And it's kinda really sad at the level they were thinking that they couldn't believe that this person would pay them this amount of money. This person's worth like 150 to 300 million. And they're getting like $30,000. And then they find out that they can't get any more because, oh my goodness, the FBI is already watching this guy. Yeah, the level of idiocy is so high. I would imagine that they're gonna probably get, I don't know what they could offer a district attorney, maybe, but I'd be the first one in that door with my attorney saying, I'll give up anything I can. Just don't put me away for life. - Yeah, well, I think this is actually a federal case for some reason, that was a US attorney that was on the screen. So that's even worse because the feds don't play. Whereas the state, they may cut you a deal, the feds are like, no deals, no deals. You're doing the full sentence. I wanna play a little bit of this show that Dr. Debbie was on law and crime. - If they live in an more one of two ways, it could be helpful to the defense. If these daughters were to say that there's no way that their father could potentially be involved in wrongdoing, and he's only been a loving father to them and a wonderful spouse to their mother, or if and when we start to hear about arguments and language and statements made that are incriminating, that could hurt Mr. Pino. - Looking ahead, Goodman says we're in a holding pattern, but we could soon see movement. What do you expect to happen as this case moves forward? - Well, Dr. Debbie, we have you on this show, so I'm not gonna play that 'cause we have you live. I don't wanna play a video of you, but I just wanted to let everyone know you were on a national show being interviewed in regards to this case and you did a fantastic job, and I said, I won't play it because we have you here. Why would I play the taped Dr. Debbie? And when I have the live Dr. Debbie Goodman here. But this case is really, I mean, it's like a model for all of these merciful higher cases that we've covered throughout the years. The innocent, the stupidity of hiring and the thugs, the thugs that you deal with in this. And as I said to Mike, I'm amazed that the thugs didn't say, "You know something, let's just kill him." You know, why are we taking these huge chances? It'd be easier to kill him and just rob everything in this burglarizes house, take everything he has. Instead of, now we can't even get any money 'cause the FBI is watching his bank account. Unbelievable. The gang that couldn't shoot straight Mikey handle on the head. Yeah, this is so terrible because this person is an accomplished person. He's been building houses. He's got a tremendous amount of money. He knows how to do complicated operations, dealing with all kinds of state labor unions and state laws and building things. And actually getting things done. And when it comes down to this, he goes to the, he goes not even the JV team. He's going so far down in the hole, it's pathetic. It actually is pathetic. And you think that if he had a rational brain at that moment, rather than an emotional brain from the anger, you think he'd say, you know, what the hell was I thinking? You know, let me just give her. I offered a 20, she turned it down. I'll make you offer 50, you know? And she'll probably bite for that and that's it. You know, other than that, I'll look her eyeball eyeball and say, look, we're going to drag this out. You might get more money from me that's going to take years as good as to plead our family savings for our daughter. So do something. You know, the rationality goes out the window and it looks like he just became this crazed, emotional person who's willing to even, not even abide by his own common sense would tell him, you know, you're not doing this and he's doing it. It's really amazing how far someone could go down the rabbit hole and lose every ounce of common sense and intelligence based on emotion and made the loss of control and anger. It's just amazing how far we could degenerate in those situations. - Well, you know, Mike, the thing that's amazing to me is that the guy that backed his car into her, we saw that video, she knew him. - Hey, I know you, you know the guy. - Oh, I see that's the guy who works for us. - Right, right. - They hire the roofer to kill her. They hire another guy that worked for him on his yacht. That's the guy that serves the strings on the yacht. And he's trying to now back his car into just like, unbelievable, right? Unbelievable. Carol Gristen, thank you so much for gifting five police off the cuff memberships. Very much appreciated. Carol is also a moderator. I see the little wrench on her little thing there. And that's indicative of a moderator. And thank you so much for all you do, Carol. And I want to play a little bit of this and then we'll get back to Dr. Debbie. - And to an FBI raid, a South Florida developer who was under investigation was found dead in his poll gables mansion. Sergio Pino built. - I think they're talking about suicide. So now they won't play this now because we're too old. We're not allowed to hear about suicide. So they censor it. Anyway, so what happened was the FBI hit the house. They surrounded it. They used three different flesh banks. We used to call them stun grenades. That's what they really are used for, is to stun the person or persons and so they become disoriented. But he was already dead. So I guess he decided that the FBI had so much evidence against him that he didn't want to face the music of the criminal justice system. So rather than get arrested and go through the system and try to fight the case, he took his own life. Dr. Debbie. - Yeah, I think it's important, Sergeant Bill, Professor Mike and the viewers, if we could take a moment just to talk about suicide, we know data from our CDC, our Center for Disease Control, WHO, our World Health Organization, indicates that if we started 2020, the last three to four calendar years, there has been an uptick in the suicides. And our hope, of course, is that if any viewers are in distress and/or people they know that there is a national lifeline that exists free of charge, anonymous, by dialing 988. And so we know too, and both of you, of course, have experienced, you know, these circumstances firsthand in the law enforcement arena. And that's another big concern to make sure that our law enforcement officials are healthy and well and know that they too can get help. But ultimately we understand that suicide is the permanent solution to temporary problems and for Mr. Pino to have come to this ultimate decision he made, it's almost like, you know, for what purpose, right, was it too much pressure that he was under? Was it the fall from grace, so to speak, an individual at the pinnacle almost of life, personally and professionally, and all of the accomplishments and having health, having had a 32-year marriage, healthy, well-adjusted daughters, a thriving career, one would think, you know, as we say, taking a look at the grass over there, and it looks pretty green, and everything looks good, and yet we're not 100% certain what really led to this. Was it that he knew he was about to be arrested, and was that just going to be too much for him? To potentially, upon arrest, you know, maybe he would have been convicted, maybe he wouldn't have been, we don't know, but ultimately it is tragic when one makes that decision to solve him. - Absolutely. Well, I think we basically covered this as far as what occurred between Sergio Pino and his wife Tatiana, his daughters, I'm sure there's a lot more that we didn't cover, but the fact that one of the things that will take the sting out of the prosecution, even for the murder for hire guys, is that he's not around anymore, because that, obviously, he would have been the number one target, and then the hit guys would have been number two. Now they're the number one target, and the U.S. Attorney's gonna go after them with the full power of the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Florida. Mike, your final thoughts? - Final thoughts, we should pray for the daughters of Tatiana and for that family, because what has happened to them has been so destructive in the past several years for the filing of the divorce proceedings until present day. They've lost their father now, this guy, you and I know what he's capable of doing, but they knew him from the age of infancy, and to think that their father would do something like this to the woman that's their mom is gotta tear at the family fabric. So pray for them, they deserve prayers and understanding. - Absolutely, Dr. W, your final words. - Yes, well, of course, thank you so much, Sergeant Bill, Professor Mike, and the viewers for the honor of appearing with you and discussing the case. It's a sad case, it's traumatic, it's very difficult to understand how and why people make the decisions they make, but I agree with Professor Mike, I think the daughters are certainly the unfortunate innocent victims to all of this, and hopefully they will be able to adjust to the knowledge of knowing what's transpired here, and will be able to move forward in their lives and lifestyles in a healthy manner. - Absolutely, I wanna thank everyone. This is a new story for us. We weren't really aware of it, they'll doctor heavy of prize this of it. It's sort of a national story, but I think it took a lot of the, when Sergio killed himself, it took a lot of the story out of the big story, because he of course was the protagonist, and now he's gone, and it's just what's left now are the thugs that he hired to kill his wife. So folks, thank you so much for tuning in on behalf of police officer coffee of crime stores. I wanna thank Dr. Debbie Goodman, criminologist and professor at St. Thomas University in Northern Miami. Is that a little differentiates Northern from Southern Miami? I mean, how close do you have to be to Miami Miami to have that panache of, oh, I live in Miami, right? I guess you still do. And of course, Professor Mike Geary, who wanted to stay up late tonight, so he asked me to have the show on at a 10 o'clock. Anyway, folks, thank you so much for tuning in. Have a great night, everyone, and God bless. Okay. 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