The Miami-Dade Police have arrested a second suspect in connection with the murder of José Luis Sánchez Valera, which occurred in Doral in November 2023. Julio César Hernández Montero, 27, faces charges including first-degree murder, armed robbery in a home invasion, carjacking, and kidnapping. Hernández Montero was arrested in Panama and extradited to the United States for this crime, and was denied the right to bail.
Hernández Montero is believed to be one of the accomplices of Yurwin Salazar Maita, who was arrested in January for the murder, robbery, kidnapping, and home invasion of Sánchez Valera. The victim’s body was found tied up in an abandoned vehicle in Miami, Florida, and Hernández Montero, who identified himself as a member of the Venezuelan gang “Tren de Aragua”, has been connected to the crime.
On Thursday, Hernández Montero appeared before a Miami court, where Senator Marco Rubio and Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar, along with other legislators, sent a letter to President Biden asking for the gang to be designated as a transnational criminal organization. This designation could help deploy resources to combat the growing violence of the gang in the United States.
Debis Zambrano, brother of the victim, provided Telemundo 51 with a video that may be one of the last recordings of Sánchez Valera’s life, in which he is seen with two women believed to be connected to the murder. Zambrano identified the women as Yoleidy Ilarraza and Yordaliz Henroquez, who have ties to the neighborhood where the victim grew up and reportedly borrowed money from him to travel to the United States.
Although Zambrano mentioned two other men as possible accomplices in the crime against his brother, their involvement has not been confirmed by the Miami-Dade Police. This case continues to unfold as authorities work to bring all those responsible for this heinous crime to justice.