A Margate man has been convicted for his role in a 2023 murder-for-hire plot that ended in the killing of an airplane mechanic, authorities said.
Read more Video shows UM student telling detective why he hid camera in roommate’s room
Avin “Smalls” Seetaram, 27, was convicted by a federal jury of murder-for-hire conspiracy, murder for hire, stalking resulting in death, discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during a crime of violence, and causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm during a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said Thursday.
Seetaram was one of three men arrested in the kidnapping and murder of 36-year-old Suren Seetal, who worked as a mechanic at Opa-locka Airport and Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport and also had a fireworks business.
Seetal had disappeared on Nov. 2, 2023, and his decomposed body was later found dumped in the Florida Everglades with a gunshot wound to his head.
Authorities said Seetaram conspired with 32-year-old Christopher “Lil Chris” Singh and Gavin Hunter, who was 18 at the time, to kill Seetal.
According to an arrest affidavit, Singh had owed Seetal around $315,000 related to his fireworks business, and Seetal’s girlfriend said he had begun trying to collect his debts.
The conspirators had first targeted Seetal in July of 2023, when they tracked him and sent a gunman to kill him, prosecutors said.
Read more Pedestrian hurt in hit-and-run crash in Miami, police say
Seetal and the gunman exchanged gunfire, but no one was struck.
The second plot unfolded months later, in November, when Seetal was lured to a business and a gunman, believed to be Hunter, ambushed and shot him, the affidavit said.
Seetaram and Singh paid the gunman then worked to conceal the crime, including transporting and disposing of Seetal’s body in the Everglades, prosecutors said.
Security footage showed Seetaram and Singh buying a 96-gallon yard waste cart at a Home Depot shortly after the murder, the affidavit said.
Seetaram faces up 20 years in federal prison on the conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during a crime of violence count and up to life in prison on the remaining counts at sentencing.
Singh previously pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire conspiracy, murder-for-hire and other charges, and was sentenced to life in prison.
Hunter has yet to go to trial.
“This was not a spontaneous act of violence. It was a deliberate, persistent, and cold-blooded murder-for-hire scheme,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement. “The defendants tracked Suren Seetal, sent armed men to kill him, tried again after the first attempt failed, and ultimately had him ambushed and murdered. They then paid the gunman and helped dispose of Seetal’s body in the Everglades. One conspirator is already serving life in federal prison, and a jury has now convicted Seetaram for his role in this brutal crime.”
Read more Live updates: Today’s South Florida news