Tatiana Pino was menaced by attempts on her life that included fentanyl poisoning, the ramming of her car with a flatbed truck and being chased by a gunman outside her home, according to federal prosecutors. Now, a newly filed indictment includes a previously unknown detail — that prominent developer Sergio Pino suggested one crew he hired to kill his estranged wife inject her with a “liquid substance” to make her death look like a “heart attack.”
Pino, 67, killed himself with a gun at his Cocoplum home after FBI agents came to arrest him on the morning of July 16, but he appears as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the indictment charging six men with the murder-for-hire conspiracy and three others with related offenses.
The indictment, which was returned by a Miami federal grand jury this week, is the latest development in the FBI’s two-year long investigation into the late home builder’s attempts to kill his wife, Tatiana Pino, as their marriage dissolved — including allegations of fentanyl poisoning, arson attacks, using a flatbed track to ram the wife’s vehicle and ultimately using a hit man to threaten her with a gun in the driveway of her home in Pinecrest on June 23. The FBI raided Pino’s home and business in Coral Gables the following day.
The freshest detail in the indictment, which follows a series of FBI criminal complaints and affidavits leading to the nine men’s arrests in recent months, revolves around Pino’s hiring of a second crew of men to kill his wife before a critical divorce trial this summer and then cover it up.
“Co-conspirator 1 [Sergio Pino] provided the second crew with a financial incentive to ensure the crime was not traced back to him,” according to the indictment. “Co-conspirator 1 suggested that the second crew should kill Victim 1 [Tatiana Pino] by injecting her with a provided liquid substance to make her death appear to be a heart attack.”
There are no other details about the alleged injection scheme in the indictment, however. Because of his death, Pino has not been charged with the nine other defendants. Pino’s defense attorney, Sam Rabin, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The indictment also says Pino “insisted on dealing exclusively with” the leader of the second crew “to conceal his involvement in this murder for hire scheme.”
The leader of the crew, Fausto Villar, a former felon who served six years in state prison for an armed robbery conviction, was working as a roofer for Pino when the developer hired him for the alleged hit job, according to FBI records. Villar, in turn, recruited an ex-felon he knew from prison, Avery Bivins, to coordinate the scheme to kill Pino’s wife, FBI court records show.
Bivins then brought in a friend, Clementa Johnson, to execute the hit, and Johnson hired his cousin, Vernon Green, to go to the wife’s home to threaten her with a gun, according to FBI records. Green not only brandished the weapon as Tatiana Pino slammed the horn of her car and sped off into her backyard, but he he also pointed the firearm the face of Pino’s adult daughter, who came outside during the commotion.
Another member of the second crew is Diori Barnard, who is accused of providing back-up support.
Bivins, Johnson and Green are scheduled for their arraignments this afternoon in Miami federal court. Villar’s arraignment is on Monday. Barnard’s arraignment has not been set.
In addition to those five men, Bayron Bennett, who worked as a hired hand on Pino’s yacht, is also charged with the murder conspiracy.
At Pino’s direction, Bennett coordinated the first attempt to kill the developer’s wife last year, according to the indictment. The crew included three other defendants — Michael Dulfo, Jerren Howard and Edner Etienne — who are charged with lesser offenses, such as stalking, assault and racketeering.
In August of last year, Etienne rammed a rented Home Depot flatbed truck backwards into Tatiana Pino’s car after she pulled into her driveway, according to court documents. Etienne fled the scene.
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