Murder charges 4 years after death
Suspected accomplice died in 2015 robbery
A 23-year-old man whose alleged accomplice was killed during a botched robbery in 2015 was arrested Tuesday on a felony murder charge, records show.
Investigators said Jason Tobar, of Orlando, and 19-year-old Ahmed Munir planned to rob Yamil Salazar Rodriguez, 20, at his Palms Villa Residences apartment in south Orange County in November 2015, possibly over money Salazar Rodriguez owed Munir.
During a struggle inside Salazar Rodriguez’s apartment, Salazar Rodriguez stabbed the men, killing Munir, according to investigators.
Prosecutors on Monday filed charges against Tobar of burglary with an assault or battery and second degree felony murder. Under Florida law, a person can be charged with murder if someone is killed while they are committing a felony.
Tobar is currently serving a nine-month sentence at the Orange County Jail after he was convicted in June of possessing more than 20 grams of marijuana and being a felon in possession of a firearm during a 2018 traffic stop, records show.
In the 2015 incident, Orange County deputies were called about 1 a.m. to Salazar Rodriguez’s apartment, where they found Munir dead from apparent stab wounds and Salazar Rodriguez injured.
Hours later, Tobar was found at a Kissimmee hospital, injured from multiple stab wounds all over his body, records show.
Salazar Rodriguez told responding deputies that he was watching TV that night when he heard a knock at his door.
“Not expecting anyone, Salazar Rodriguez armed himself with a small kitchen knife and opened the front door slightly,” Detective Rose Silva wrote in an investigative report.
He said a man he didn’t recognize told him he was a new neighbor and asked for a lighter. He left the door open and went searching for one. When he came back, two masked men forced their way inside, Salazar Rodriguez told deputies, according to the report.
The men tackled and began choking and stomping him, Silva wrote.
Salazar Rodriguez said he stabbed them multiple times during the struggle and, when their masks shifted, he recognized them as Munir and Tobar. He told deputies he and Tobar had been arrested together the previous month and he knew Munir from childhood.
Tobar fled from the apartment during the fight, leaving Munir injured inside, Salazar Rodriguez told deputies. He said he tried chasing after Tobar, but instead pulled the fire alarm to attract neighbors.
Munir was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Hours later, deputies located Tobar at AdventHealth Kissimmee. In an interview, he told them he was robbed and stabbed that night by a group of men who pulled up next to him while he was walking home alone from a friend’s house, the Sheriff’s Office report states.
“I confronted Tobar with the death of his friend, Munir and Tobar admitted he had not been truthful with me, but refused to continue without an attorney,” Silva wrote.
In a later interview with his lawyer, Tobar told investigators he, Munir and a man named Jose went to Salazar Rodriguez’s apartment that night to “get high,” but after Munir paid Salazar Rodriguez for the drugs, Salazar Rodriguez told them to leave. Tobar said Munir and Salazar Rodriguez began struggling over the money and that’s when Salazar Rodriguez started “going crazy with the knife,” stabbing both him and Munir.
When he ran out of the apartment, Tobar said he thought Munir was behind him, according to the report.
He said Jose ran in a different direction.
But investigators said Tobar’s DNA was found on a gym bag left inside Salazar Rodriguez’s apartment that contained duct tape, rope, gloves and cleaning product — “evidence that would not be indicative to just simply get high, but would be used during the commission of a robbery,” Silva wrote in the report.
Tobar denied touching or knowing the contents of the bag, but said he remembered Munir carrying one, though he assumed it would be used to hold drugs, according to the report. He denied knowing “of any plan to rob or harm Salazar Rodriguez,” Silva wrote.
Munir’s brother told investigators that, about two months prior, he overheard Munir talking on the phone with someone about Salazar Rodriguez owing him $2,000.
Silva wrote that Tobar “went to Salazar Rodriguez’s apartment with the intent to commit a robbery. During the commission of the robbery, Ahmed Munir was killed.”