A man and woman were arrested after they were accused of burglarizing the Coral Gables home and stealing the luxury cars of a couple killed in a helicopter crash in Kenya last week, records showed.
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Geybert Alexander Garcia, 40, and Melany Perdomo, 24, were arrested Tuesday on charges including burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, grand theft of a vehicle and grand theft, arrest reports said.
The pair are accused of burglarizing the home of two of the victims of the Aug. 19 helicopter crash in Kenya that killed multiple people with ties to South Florida.
According to the arrest reports, the burglary happened at some point between Aug. 20 and Aug. 22, and was reported by the housekeeper on Aug. 23.
Although the reports don’t give the victims’ names, they list the date of the crash and said they were “tragically killed in an unforeseen fatal accident while away from the residence.”
The reports said the victims’ home on Valencia Avenue was ransacked, with personal and business documents, jewelry, electronics and artwork stolen.
The victims’ Range Rover and Porsche Taycan were also stolen.
According to the reports, the victim’s stolen Apple MacBook was tracked down to an address in Hialeah, along with the spare key for the Range Rover.
Detectives executed a search warrant at the home, where Garcia tried to conceal himself inside a bedroom closet, the reports said.
Garcia and Perdomo, who was in an upstairs bedroom, were both taken into custody.
While executing the search warrant, authorities found numerous documents stolen from the couple as well as the Range Rover key fob, the reports said.
Also found were several of the victims’ pieces of valuable artwork including a sculpture valued at more than $500,000, the reports said.
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Garcia and Perdomo were both booked into jail, and both appeared in bond court on Wednesday.
“Your honor, you’ll see that the defendant’s got prior felony convictions for burglarizing homes, money laundering, dealing in stolen property,” a prosecutor said during Garcia’s hearing. “I don’t know if this home was specifically targeted because I believe it was in the media that the victims passed away.”
Garcia’s defense attorney provided a notarized document he said came from Garcia’s family that they said was from one of the alleged victims.
The document allegedly granted Garcia possession of their vehicles and entrance into their home, the attorney said.
“Oh I gotta see this,” Judge Mindy Glazer said. “Really? Before they went on their vacation, they decided to give Mr. Garcia authorization to use their vehicles, Mr. Garcia, who has a criminal history?”
“Judge, I can only go by the information that’s provided by the family,” the defense attorney responded.
“Yeah, I would not give that much weight,” Glazer said.
“It’s my understanding that the notary is actually a friend of the victim,” the attorney said.
The hearing was reset for later Wednesday for a probable cause hearing, though Garcia’s attorney discussed setting a bond.
“I’m not going to address anything until I hear from the officers for the probable cause hearing,” Glazer responded. “But I mean, it’s pretty egregious to break into somebody’s home of victims who had just perished. So I’ll consider whatever you ask based on what there’s probable cause for.”
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