MIAMI – A bronze-medal winning Olympic wrestler and mixed-martial arts fighter sat in a Miami-Dade courtroom Monday after he was arrested for his alleged role in a kidnapping and murder.
Alexis Vila Perdomo is charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping in connection with the 2011 death of 43-year-old Camilo Salazar.
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According to an arrest warrant, Salazar’s body was found June 1, 2011, just west of a brush fire along a dirt road east of Okeechobee Road, near Northwest 137th Avenue.
His hands were bound behind his back and his body was partially burned.
A medical examiner later determined that Salazar had suffered multiple blunt force injuries to his head, a slit throat and burns to his groin area.
Authorities said Vila Perdomo plotted Salazar's murder with Manuel Marin, a part owner of several Presidente Supermarkets, and two other men, former MMA fighter Ariel Gandulla and fight trainer and promoter Roberto Isaac.
Police said Salazar was having an affair with Marin's wife, fueling the motive for the killing.
"He is anxious to defend himself," Vila-Perdomo's attorney, Eric Padron, said on Monday.
Padron argued in court that his client should be allowed to be free on bail until his trial.
"The prosecutor told him she had enough to charge him with murder and he still did not leave the country. He is still here," Padron said.
The hearing became too much for the defendant's mother-in-law, who suffered a seizure and had to be taken to the hospital.
"This is wrong," Vila Perdomo's wife, Cecilia Alvarez, said. "They need to let him out. He has four kids. He takes care of us. He's innocent. He needs to come home."
Despite his wife's wishes, Vila Perdomo was ordered held without bond.
"They won't let him out," Alvarez said. "It's not right. It's unjust and it's not fair."
Marin is believed to have fled to Spain after the killing, while Gandulla's whereabouts are also unknown.
Issac remains behind bars as he awaits his next court hearing.