Dead body had dollars stuffed in pockets

Thousands found on robber who drowned in canal

With his pockets stuffed with stolen cash, Samuel Howell ran from the robbery scene and, along with his accomplice, jumped into a Sunrise canal to escape.

And it was only then, authorities said, that the 27-year-old Howell remembered something vitally important.

“I can’t swim!” he shouted to accomplice Juan Lahera, safely on the other side.

“F--- you!” Lahera yelled, continuing to make his getaway. “You’re on your own.”

Three days after that home invasion robbery in July 2011, a Sunrise police canine unit found Howell’s decomposing body floating in a canal in the 8100 block of Northwest 20th Court. He was identified through fingerprints, tattoos and family interviews, police said.

Found in Howell’s pockets was a New York driver’s license and several thousand dollars in cash, police said.

Now, more than 5 1/2 years after the deadly caper, Lahera has been arrested and charged with home invasion robbery with a firearm and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.

Lahera — who turns 33 on Tuesday — is being held without bond in the Broward County jail after being extradited from Maricopa County, Ariz., prosecutors said Monday in court.

The Broward State Attorney did look at the case in light of Howell’s death, but found no additional charges were warranted, according to spokesman Ron Ishoy. “The medical examiner determined that Howell had drowned, and there was no evidence to show that Lahera had anything to do with that drowning death,” Ishoy said in an email.

As spelled out in a search warrant, the tale of Lahera and his long run from the law began July 10, 2011, when he and Howell, both armed with handguns, jumped the back fence into the yard of a

home in Sunrise.

The resident of the house was targeted, a confidential informant told police, because he was “involved in illegal activity” and was known to keep as much as $150,000 in cash on hand. Howell flew to South Florida from his home in New York just to partner with Lahera in the heist, the informant told detectives.

In the backyard the pair encountered the family dog. Howell fired three times, police said, and hit the dog twice. It is unclear whether the dog survived.

On the back patio of the house, Lahera held a gun to the head of the resident and marched him inside.

The man led Lahera into a closet in the master bedroom, where he turned over cash hidden in a “tactical vest,” according to the search warrant.

Lahera then forced the victim to crawl under his bed before the robbers ran away, the warrant said.

In fleeing the area, Lahera and Howell jumped into the canal to avoid capture, the informant told police.

After leaving the flailing Howell to fend for himself, Lahera ran to a nearby pizza parlor, “hid on the roof, called a cab and drove to the apartment residence of the female [informant]” police said.

When Lahera arrived at the woman’s apartment about two hours after the robbery, he was soaking wet, she said.

Lahera “told [the informant] that co-defendant Howell told him to wait up because he couldn’t swim well,” according to the warrant. “The defendant said that he didn’t know what happened to co-defendant Howell.”

Later that night, the informant told detectives that she drove Lahera to the area of Sunrise Boulevard and North University Drive, where he retrieved a bag he had stashed. Back at the apartment they counted out $22,300, she said.

Howell’s badly decomposed body was found by a Sunrise police canine unit three days later, floating in a canal in the 8100 block of Northwest 20th Court. He was identified through fingerprints, tattoos and family interviews, police said.

For years Lahera remained out of sight. In court Monday public defender Hector Romero told Broward Judge Michael Davis that Lahera had been working at a storage facility in Arizona, making $3,000 a month, before he was taken into custody in November.

Prosecutor Eric Linder asked the court to hold Lahera without bond, citing a criminal record that includes convictions for burglary and aggravated battery.

The crimes of which Lahera is now accused occurred just months after he finished serving a prison sentence of more than six years, records indicate.

Lahera is due back in court within days for a hearing in which his attorney will argue that he receive a bond.

Lahera