A 29-year-old Miami man who was looking to buy a Rolex watch was gunned down in Lauderdale Lakes and now two people have been charged with his murder.
Alexis Lynn Rupert, 21, and Neal Rice, 41, are charged in the shooting death of Emmanuel Antonio Tinoco on May 15, records show.
According to Rupert's arrest record, Tinoco drove to the Pacific Point luxury apartments, parked a 2017 gray Mercedes Benz S550 just before 9 p.m., and a woman matching Rupert’s description got out and walked into the building.
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Moments later she walked back toward the car talking on her cellphone and two men also approached the car from either side. The man on the passenger side opened fire with what evidence indicated was an AK-47 assault rifle, striking Tinoco five times, the report stated.
Broward Sheriff’s detectives said they found fingerprints, a long strand of blond hair, Tinoco’s cellphone and a handgun in the car.
Text messages on the phone indicated Tinoco was arranging to buy a Rolex watch from the woman. Detectives also found one spent shell from the gun in the backseat.
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Other text messages indicated the two were acquainted previously and that she worked for an escort service. Rupert’s aliases included Lexxii, Giselle, Brooke Vatuna, and Shannon Green, investigators said.
Numerous 911 calls were received from Pacific Point residents but one man had two security cameras on his balcony that recorded the murder on video. It showed the two men and the woman running away after the deadly shooting.
Investigators later determined that Rupert improperly sublet an apartment at Pacific Point and that Rice often stayed there.
Rice posted on Instagram a picture of himself and Tinoco at a Miami nightclub four months before the murder, state report stated.
Detectives traced the movement of Rupert’s and Rice’s cellphones on the night of the murder and both had travelled from North Bay Village to Lauderdale Lakes and back again. Cellphone tracking also revealed the pair travelled to Austin, Texas, in late May.
Austin Police were alerted and they staked out a hotel where Rupert and Rice were staying.
They were brought in for questioning. Rupert refused to talk, but Rice said Rupert was an escort who had sex with paying clients and him at her Pacific Point apartment, police said.
Rice denied having anything to do with Tinoco’s murder.
Cellphone tracking records and DNA traces found at the scene of the murder told a different story and both Rupert and Rice were arrested, according to a grand jury indictment.
Both were being held in the Broward County Jail Thursday without bond on a murder charge, records show.
It was unclear what happened to the second man seen in the video at the scene of the deadly shooting.
