VERO BEACH — Almost three months after a group of young people from Miami rented a house in Central Beach for a weekend birthday party, which spilled over into a crime spree terrorizing neighbors, Vero Beach police have finally obtained three arrest warrants.
Applying good old-fashioned gumshoe investigative techniques to the case, Detectives Brian Kerensky and Jason Jones obtained confessions and statements that have led to felony charges against two juveniles and 24-year-old Lazaro Rodriguez.
Lt. Matt Harrelson, who heads up Vero’s Detective Division, said the suspects had come to Vero to celebrate the birthday of Jennifer Molina, who searching the internet, had “found the 626 Dahlia Lane house for rent during the dates she wanted and so she secured it using her credit card.
“Molina and her group of friends stayed at the residence for the three day span and the party grew larger when several other subjects drove up from the Miami area to partake in the festivities. While the partying began to get out of hand, several of the subjects ventured out and began to burglarize the neighborhood and this escalated all the way up to stealing the Kia from 2916 Eagle Drive,” Harrelson said.
Neighbors reported seeing six, eight or more young people coming in and out of the house over the course of the weekend, leaving detectives searching for clues as to who did what. With the suspects back in Miami, the landlord not cooperating anymore (he sold the home a short time later) and scant clues left behind, the prospect of hauling anyone off to jail for the crimes was looking dim.
But Vero police, on two trips to Miami, came up with enough information, backed up by physical evidence, to take four warrants to a judge last Friday. Three of those warrants were approved, while one warrant for a fourth man was denied by the court.
The two juveniles will not be taken into custody, but will both be served with notices to appear in court. The adult will be arrested by Miami-Dade police and later transported to Indian River County, unless he turns himself in to the Vero Beach Police Department.
“What began as an illegal short-term rental City of Vero Beach ordinance violation has morphed into a weekend crime spree followed by countless man-hours of investigation which led up to the above charges,” Harrelson said.
Still in question is whether or not the former Dahlia Lane homeowner Matt Martise – who ironically sold the house on Feb. 10 for $365,000 – will voluntarily cooperate with the prosecution of the accused perpetrators, as police tried numerous times throughout the course of the investigation to contact Martise, to no avail.
Going forward, City Manager Jim O’Connor has transferred responsibility for Code Enforcement activities from the city’s chief planner Tim McGarry in the planning department to Chief David Currey and the Police Department.
