Miami man ditches GPS monitor and house arrest, fatally stabs ex-girlfriend, cops say
Four months ago, Hugues Dorvilus was booked on a slew of domestic-violence allegations: beating his thengirlfriend on two separate occasions, plus pointing a gun at her. He was released from jail, equipped with a GPS ankle monitor and ordered to stay inside his North Miami-Dade home to await trial.
Early on Wednesday, Miami-Dade police said, Dorvilus broke off his ankle monitor, traveled to a North Miami-Dade trailer park community and stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death as she lay on a mattress. The killing happened in front of the woman’s sister and toddler niece, authorities said.
Dorvilus, 29, was booked into a
Miami-Dade jail late Wednesday, this time charged with the murder of 23-year-old Emicherline Etienne. He’s also charged with armed burglary.
The murder happened early Wednesday. He was not arrested immediately, but after an all-day manhunt he was captured in Lauderhill, according to police reports.
Dorvilus won’t be getting out of jail. Under Florida law, anyone charged with murder is automatically held with no bond after arrest. Plus, he’s still facing three additional cases related to the earlier suspected domestic abuse of Etienne.
Dorvilus had no criminal history until he was arrested on June 1, after he and Etienne got into an argument in the car when she said she wanted her family to move in at the apartment they shared on the 9600 block of Northwest 10th Avenue. They’d been together six years, but when she threatened to end the relationship, he snapped and pointed his 9mm gun at her, according to a police report.
“If you try and leave me, I will shoot you dead,” Dorvilus, 29, told her as they drove through North Miami, according to an arrest report.
Etienne pushed the gun away. A “brief struggle” ensued and the gun went
off — wounding Dorvilus in the leg, according to a North Miami police report. Dorvilus was taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital and later charged with aggravated assault with a firearm.
In speaking with police afterward, Etienne revealed two other instances of domestic violence, which resulted in two additional cases:
In July 2018, Dorvilus punched Etienne in the face, causing bruising, cuts and a swollen eye, police said. At the time, doctors told her the attack would result in “permanent scars and disfigurement to her face,” according to the police report. Dorvilus was charged with aggravated battery.
Dorvilus twice slapped Etienne during an argument in November 2019. They had been arguing over him “continuously touching her face,” the police report said. Dorvilus was charged with misdemeanor battery.
A Miami-Dade judge ordered Dorvilus to stay away from Etienne. Dorvilus had been represented by Miami defense attorney Andrew Rier, who earlier this week moved to withdraw from the case.
“In all my dealings with him, he was soft spoken and reserved,” Rier said Wednesday evening. “It was difficult to communicate with him.”
In a statement, MiamiDade Corrections said that Dorvilus was deemed “an abscond” in the early morning hours on Wednesday.
According to an arrest warrant, the ankle monitor was cut at 5:44 a.m., which immediately sent an alert to Miami-Dade Corrections. Within minutes, Dorvilus — wearing all black — broke into the trailer home i the 9700 block of Northwest 10th Avenue, police said.
Etienne’s sister woke up to screams as the stabbing happened, the warrant said. Dorvilus fled, but not before telling the sister he stabbed Etienne “because she cheated on him,” according to the warrant.
By 6:16 a.m., MiamiDade police officers were on the scene. Paramedics rushed her to Ryder Trauma Center, and she was pronounced dead at 8:05 a.m.
Dorvilus called his brother and confessed to the murder, according to the warrant by MiamiDade Detective Juan Segovia. About seven hours later, Dorvilus was in police custody.