Cuban woman and her son plead guilty after being accused of armed robbery of the owner of a nail salon in Hialeah, stealing jewelry valued at almost 1 million dollars

This week, a Cuban woman and her son admitted their guilt in carrying out an armed robbery in Hialeah, an incident that shook the city and whose impact has increased after the statement. Both individuals broke into a nail salon and coerced its owner, managing to take a suitcase containing more than 1,300 pieces of jewelry equivalent to 750,000 dollars. The crime was captured by surveillance cameras and their immediate co-authors could face severe penalties.

The crime occurred in September of last year near the Champagne Nails establishment, located at 7751 West 28th Avenue in Hialeah. The perpetrators, identified as Lourdes Diaz, 56, and Julian Flores, 25, the latter a resident of Naples, acted with obvious premeditation. Both were charged with armed robbery, a crime that carries a sentence of up to life in prison. According to information provided by the Telemundo 51 team, the prosecution is advocating for the imposition of a reduced sentence of 150 months for Julian.

The modus operandi used by the accused was based on gaining the victim's trust. Therefore, Lourdes spent more than a month visiting the nail salon and used her frequent presence there to establish a close relationship with the owner, named Yunet Sánchez, also of Cuban origin, in order to learn certain details about her merchandise. According to what was stated in the reports, the commissioner of the crime did not acquire any product, but she did raise multiple questions about the jewelry that Yunet sold.

Specifically, on September 16, 2023, Julián surprised the victim when she was leaving the salon with her suitcase of jewelry. The young man went to meet her dressed in black and wearing a balaclava to hide his face. However, what is most significant is that he was carrying a firearm, with which he hit Yunet in the head while she tried to defend herself, even firing into the air, a situation that greatly contributed to him being able to rob her of the suitcase. He and his mother then fled the scene aboard a rented Chevrolet Esquinox SUV.

However, even though the defendants thought they had successfully executed their criminal plan, they made a series of mistakes that allowed the authorities to locate them. First, security cameras recorded part of the execution, although the factor that determined their participation in the crime was the behavior subsequently assumed by Julián, who made several publications on his social networks, in which he appeared wearing the stolen jewelry, which led to his identification. In addition, the detectives in charge of the case traced the license plate of the vehicle in which they both escaped, detecting that Lourdes had previously rented it at the Miami International Airport.

The police officers proceeded to arrest the individuals and Lourdes was caught with two bags of jewelry, whose characteristics matched those described by the victim. Fortunately, the police were able to recover 90% of the stolen pieces, however this does not reverse the economic and emotional damage suffered by Yunet.

It is worth noting that even though none of the defendants had a criminal record, Judge Mindy S. Glazer ruled that they remain in custody by denying them the right to bail due to the social danger of the crime in question. In the current context, mother and son will have to wait until February 2025 to learn their sentence after attending the hearings scheduled for that month for such purposes.