Miami-Dade County

Woman on Trial for Alleged 2012 Murder-for-Hire Killing of Ex-Boyfriend in Cutler Bay

Dianelis de la Caridad-Fonseca, now 33, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the July 2012 killing of 25-year-old Richard Vasallo

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More than a decade after a man was found murdered in a Cutler Bay neighborhood, the trial of his ex-girlfriend accused of hiring a man to carry out the killing was underway.

Dianelis de la Caridad-Fonseca, now 33, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the July 2012 killing of 25-year-old Richard Vasallo.

The trial began last month and closing arguments were being delivered Thursday, with the jury expected to begin deliberations possibly Thursday night or Friday.

Authorities said de la Caridad-Fonseca arranged to pay $600 to Jose Martin Perez-Sanchez, a Mexican national, and engage in an arranged marriage to establish permanent U.S. residency for him, in exchange for killing Vasallo.

Miami-Dade Corrections
Dianelis de la Caridad-Fonseca, Jose Martin Perez-Sanchez

De la Caridad-Fonseca lured Vasallo to a desolate area where he was fatally wounded, police said.

A passerby spotted Vasallo walking on the street bleeding in the area of Southwest 98th Court and 216th Street in the Montego Bay subdivision in Cutler Bay.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue workers responded and Vasallo was pronounced dead at the scene.

Family Photo
Richard Vasallo

De la Caridad-Fonseca and Perez-Sanchez were arrested shortly after the killing. According to an arrest affidavit, de la Caridad-Fonseca and Perez-Sanchez both confessed to the killing.

Defense attorneys said Martin took it upon himself to kill Vasallo. They also said investigators forced the confession out of de la Caridad-Fonseca.

Perez-Sanchez, now 31, is also charged with first-degree murder and is due in court later this month.

Vasallo was a Florida International University engineering graduate and a teacher at Homestead Technical School.

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