Edgar Olivas, 40 years old, was arrested and charged with the crime of Walter Castañeda, a 64-year-old Hispanic merchant who was shot during a robbery while closing his store in Little Havana, Miami, on October 1, 2021.
Telemundo 51 reported that Olivas is facing charges of first-degree murder and armed robbery. He was admitted to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade after being extradited from Orlando, where he was residing and where local police intercepted him upon discovering an active arrest warrant issued in December 2021.
The crime occurred around 8:15 PM on October 1, 2021, when Castañeda was closing his Boost Mobile store located at 443 Northwest 12th Avenue.
According to the arrest warrant, the assailant approached armed, demanded in Spanish that the victim hand everything over, took a black bag, and fled to a waiting car.
Castañeda pulled out a revolver and both men fired. A bullet struck the victim in the abdomen. He was urgently transported to a hospital but died that same night.
The investigation that led to the arrest combined multiple elements: surveillance camera footage from a nearby gas station, motel records, phone data, and social media posts.
The detectives tracked a white Honda Civic captured by cameras near the crime scene, which turned out to be stolen.
"We were able to place him at the scene of the incident. Also speaking with other individuals, they were able to identify the man as the aggressor, the one who shot the victim and killed him," stated the spokesperson for the Miami Police.
The judge Mindy Glazer completely denied bail to Olivas at his first appearance.
The widow of the victim, Medalit Castañeda, described five years of irreparable pain for a family that includes two children and seven grandchildren. “I was waiting for him to return home with me, as always, but he never came back,” she said.
The arrest does not bring her husband back, but Medalit expressed that the family now has hope of seeing justice in this case.
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