HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Juliana Cortes went by the name of “Layla” when she and two other women stole roughly $200,000 worth of jewelry and a Rolex from a man they met at a Hallandale Beach Walgreens earlier this month, according to an arrest warrant obtained from the Broward State Attorney’s Office by Local 10 News on Tuesday.
Cortes, 23, surrendered to authorities on Sunday and appeared in court Monday. The two other suspects, Antonietta Ceccarelli and Lexi Buffaloe, surrendered to police on Tuesday.
Ceccarelli had nothing to say to Local 10 News’ cameras, but an attorney spoke on behalf of Buffaloe.
“She’s four-and-a-half months pregnant,” said attorney Michael Orenstein. “She wasn’t there, she’s not a part of this.”
SAO officials heavily redacted much of Cortes’ warrant, but it reveals some additional details about the alleged crime, including the trio’s alleged distraction method.
Police said the crime happened on May 6.
According to the warrant, the victim had just won some money at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and returned to his home in the Golden Isles neighborhood of Hallandale Beach sometime after midnight. Upon coming back, “he realized he did not have Diet Coke” and went to the Walgreens at 1300 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd.
There, police said, he would meet “Layla,” “Nicki” and “Rose.”
Much of the rest of the warrant was redacted, but police have said that the trio struck up a conversation with a man in the checkout line, exchanged numbers and later called him up asking to come over to his home at around 3 a.m.
It appears that call came from Cortes’ cellphone, according to the warrant.
At some point, the warrant states that the trio “took the opportunity to fraud/swindle the victim and deprive him of his cash, jewelry and watch by exposing their breast(s) and sexuality amongst each other as a distraction.”
That watch, police said, was a James Cameron special edition Rolex. Police said in the warrant that after the trio left, the man also noticed his late wife’s gold ring was missing, along with more jewelry, $3,500 cash and “multiple pieces of adult paraphernalia.”
The warrant doesn’t specify what that “adult paraphernalia” was.
Authorities said they were able to identify the suspects’ vehicle, a Range Rover, through a license plate reader installed at the gatehouse to Golden Isles.
They also linked the phone number used to communicate with the victim to Cortes, the warrant states.
Cortes, charged with first-degree grand theft and obtaining property over $50,000 by fraud, has pleaded not guilty and has since bonded out of jail.
Hallandale Beach police are asking anyone with additional information on the case to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.