2 face charges in stabbing death of missing man
Gianni Coto, reported missing late last month, has been found dead in Indian River County, and detectives have arrested his estranged wife and another man as suspects in his murder, the Broward Sheriff ’s Office said Monday.
The stabbed, buried body of Coto, 28, was found by investigators off State Road 60 in Vero Beach last week, the Sheriff ’s Office said in a statement.
Coto, who lived in Miramar, was reported missing by a family member on Jan. 21; authorities released a bulletin to the public four days later.
Coto was last seen in the 8900 block of Northwest 77th Court in Tamarac, according to the statement. “Detectives determined that Coto went to the residence of his estranged wife, Trinity Bownes on January 21.” the statement said. “While at the residence, Coto and Bownes became involved in an argument, and at some point, Coto was fatally stabbed. Brandon Jenkins was also at the residence and became involved in the incident. After Coto was killed, his remains were buried off State Road 60 in Indian River County.”
Both suspects left Florida: Bownes, 31, was arrested Saturday in San Joaquin County, California, and Jenkins, 29, was arrested Friday in Clarksville, Tenn., the Sheriff ’s Office said.
Bownes reportedly turned herself in.
In a statement, the Clarksville police department said its tactical and special operations units arrested Jenkins without incident and booked him into the Montgomery County jail.
Jenkins and Bownes are awaiting extradition to Broward. They face charges of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Coto’s remains were moved to the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. An official ruling on the cause of death from the medical examiner was not available Monday.
Short-lived marriage
Coto and his sister, Elianne Rojas, grew up in South Florida after the family moved from Cuba in the 1990s, Rojas told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Monday.
Rojas said the marriage between Coto and Bownes didn’t last long. Married in March 2022, the couple parted ways in early December. The couple, Rojas said, had known each other and dated for two and a half to three years.
Bownes moved into a residence in Tamarac, while Coto lived with his mother in Miramar.
Both were in the medical profession. She is a traveling nurse. Coto had a job sterilizing equipment at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and was studying to be a surgical technician. He attended McFatter Technical College and High School in Davie.
“Gianni liked playing video games, he liked guitar, he liked making music with his best friend Fabio,” Rojas said. “He was a simple kid, nothing too crazy.”
Bownes and Jenkins “knew each other before Gianni came into the picture,” Rojas said, and her brother knew Jenkins.
It was Coto who moved to end the marriage, Rojas added, after “he found she was cheating on him.”
“Gianni was asking for a divorce,” Rojas said. “She was trying to get him back.”
Rojas is an assistant professor of vascular and endovascular surgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine, which she joined past September, according to her LinkedIn account. But now, Rojas says, she is seeking justice for her family. It was Rojas who first reported her brother missing. It was unlike him, she said, to drop out of sight. “We knew something terrible had happened.”
“My feeling it was a setup,” she said of the fatal assault on her brother in Tamarac. Although she was not a witness to what happened, Rojas recalled that her brother avoided a violent confrontation during the prior week .“A week before [Bownes] told [Coto] to come by to pick up storage keys.” Rojas said. “He showed up at her house and she wouldn’t open the door. ”Instead, Rojas said, there was an unidentified man present who menaced her brother before he left .“Gianni is not really a fighter,” she said. “He never would raise his hand to a women or anything like that .”Now, the family is planning his funeral for Feb. 18.