HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A final arrest has been made in the slaying of a 17-year-old boy found hacked to death with a machete in Homestead earlier this summer.
Joseph Michael Cabrera, 23, was found in St. Louis, Miami-Dade police announced Thursday.
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Cabrera, Desiray Strickland, 18, Kaheem Arbelo, 20, Christian Colon, 19, and Jonathan Lucas, 19, face first-degree murder charges in the death of Jose Santos Amaya Guardado.
On Monday, the state announced that it would be seeking the death penalty against Strickland.
According to arrest reports, the suspects and victim were students at the Homestead Job Corps center, a live-in school and vocational program.
Police said the group plotted to kill Guardado and buried a grave in the woods two weeks before executing their plan.
According to police reports, the group lured Guardado to the woods on June 28 and ambushed him with a machete.
Police said Arbelo's friends watched him slash Guardado until his face caved in.
According to the report, the suspects got rid of the shovel and murder weapon and attempted to burn their clothes and Guardado's belongings after the attack.
Guardado's body was found by his brother on July 1.
The medical examiner determined the victim's cause of death to be trauma and ruled the death a homicide.
Fall classes have since been suspended at the school. A spokesman confirmed Friday that the Homestead Job Corps' summer break has been extended until at least Sept. 9, and 17 students who had been staying at the school over the summer have been moved to another Job Corps center.
A motive for the attack remains unclear, but a police source said the victim had been bullied before by the group and that Guardado may have owed Arbelo money.
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