MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A pair of men from South Carolina are facing murder charges in South Florida in connection with a deadly drive-by shooting in Miami-Dade County back in November.
According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the two men and a third suspect were vacationing in the area when they murdered 24-year-old Esteban Arrufatt during a drug deal.
Recommended Videos
Suspects Nazr Marquis Davis, 18, of Greenville, South Carolina, and Tyshawn Sowells, 20, of Olanta, South Carolina, were jailed in Miami-Dade on Thursday.
Davis and Sowells, investigators said, were staying at a short-term rental in the Gladeview area of northwest Miami-Dade during their November stay, along with 20-year-old Tylik Brown, who was not listed in custody.
Investigators said the trio went to the unincorporated South Miami Heights area after arranging a deal to buy $1,050 worth of cannabis from Arrufatt just after 12:15 a.m. on Nov. 20, the day they were set to leave town.
But they said Davis, Sowells and Brown had no intention of paying for the marijuana, calling the transaction a “planned robbery.”
Surveillance video from Arrufatt’s home in the 19300 block of Southwest 116th Avenue showed an SUV parked in front of the house, then soon after, a voice is heard saying, “Back up, back,” as the vehicle drives away, an arrest warrant states.
The warrant states that in the video, Arrufatt “appears to react in surprise, as if startled, and backs away from the vehicle.”
Davis shot and killed Arrufatt as the trio left the scene just before 1 a.m., authorities said.
The video captured the sound of two gunshots and Arrufatt screaming, “Call an ambulance,” the warrant states.
Officers from what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department responded and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue medics took Arruffatt to Jackson South Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Authorities said the trio went back to the vacation rental with the stolen cannabis, where they photographed it.
Sowells, detectives said, Googled the phrase “Miami shooting” after the deadly robbery.
Authorities put out a be-on-the-lookout notice for the rented Jeep Compass and officers with the Edgewater Police Department in Volusia County would stop the vehicle with Sowells and others inside.
Davis, authorities said, had taken a separate vehicle back to South Carolina.
Sowells, investigators said, would tell investigators that he had bought cannabis from Arrufatt a few days prior without incident after the group arrived in South Florida.
Sowells implied that the shooting was in self-defense, authorities said, but that claim was contradicted by the video evidence.
The warrant states the Stand Your Ground would not apply anyway, as it does not protect those engaged in criminal activity.
Davis and Sowells, charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery, were being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Friday.