ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A 27-year-old Miami man was arrested on a warrant Wednesday in connection to a 2017 St. Augustine home invasion during a declared state of emergency due to Hurricane Irma, according to a report from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.
Rafael Mirabel Bonora is one of at least three suspects responsible for the home invasion attack that occurred on Datil Pepper Road the morning of Sept. 6, 2017.
Recommended Videos
At the time of the incident, the victim had told investigators he was woken up by an armed man and woman breaking into his home and demanding money. The man was pistol-whipped before being bound with a nylon cord and duct tape as the duo got away with more than $21,000 worth of money and jewelry, according to the report. A call was made to someone by one of the intruders before they were picked up in a white Ford truck by a third person, the Sheriff's Office said.
The man was able to free himself and look out the window to see the getaway truck. He then called the Sheriff's Office from a neighbor's home.
Detectives found a bloody roll of duct tape on the victim's bed and also took the duct tape and rope that the man was bound with for processing.
Swabs from the torn end of the collected duct tape that were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for processing identified Bonora's DNA, according to the report.
Further investigation revealed Bonora was in Miami on probation for an offense that occurred in Colorado in 2017. A person involved in the Colorado case had a phone number associated with the call that was made by Bonora during the home invasion, according to the report. Deputies also discovered Bonora was in a relationship with a woman who had a white Ford pickup truck registered to her at the time of the robbery.
St. Johns County deputies drove down to the Broward County Jail, where Bonora was being held on unrelated charges, for questioning. Bonora denied any involvement in the crime, but deputies had enough probable cause to establish him at the home invasion crime scene back in Sept. 2017, the report states.