HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Inocencio Sales, who spoke a Mayan language and Spanish, was from the highlands of Central America. He was learning how to speak English but Chuj was his first language.
Sales, 35, was from western Guatemala. His family in the Huehuetenango area’s village of Piol waited for his return, but his plans and dreams ended last year during an armed robbery in Miami-Dade County.
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His brother and his friends grieved at a funeral home along Krome Avenue. Detectives believe Luis Enrique Mejicano shot him in the abdomen shortly before 1 a.m., on Aug. 7, at 56 NW 9 St., in Homestead.
Detectives don’t believe the two knew each other. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel tried to save him. They used a helicopter to fly him to the Jackson South Medical Center, but a doctor pronounced him dead.
Homestead police officers responded to the crime scene first after a ShotSpotter alert. Miami-Dade detectives investigated the homicide.
Witnesses told police officers the killer had fled in a red pickup truck. Records show detectives found surveillance videos showing the pickup truck and found it parked along Southwest 157 Court.
Police officers reported Mejicano was carrying a 9 mm Glock 26 Gen 5 with an extended magazine. Detectives reported there were two 9 mm spent casings at the crime scene.
The family was able to fly Sales’s body back home on Sept. 9 to Guatemala’s capital city, and there was a caravan back to his rural town for a service in both languages. There was live music and women wore Mayan skirts.
Meanwhile, in Miami-Dade County, Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson issued an arrest warrant for Mejicano’s arrest on Oct. 31.
Records show Mejicano had fled to North Carolina and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested him on Nov. 17, in Durham.
Mejicano was extradited and correctional officers booked him on Dec. 13. Prosecutors charged him with Sales’s murder on Dec. 18.
During a hearing on Friday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Laura Cruz denied him bond. He remained at the Metrowest Detention Center on Saturday waiting for his next hearing at 9:30 a.m., on June 20.
Mejicano was facing one count of first-degree murder during a robbery and two counts of attempted armed robbery with a deadly weapon with a mask.