The Enrique Davilla Murder Story

1983

A True Story

Written 1/2001* 1,816 Words*

By Howard Yasgar

This true story took place in 1983 in Miami Florida.

At the time, I had a young Colombian fellow working for me, his name was Enrique Davilla Suarez.

Enrique was 28 years old, and he was average height, with sandy blond hair, and he had a very light complexion.

We felt that Enrique had sort of a Spanish aristocratic look about him.

At the time when I employed Enrique, he was married to a lovely, Miami born Colombian girl, and they had their 1-year-old daughter with them.

In 1983, my company was remanufacturing automotive parts in Miami and our main office was located on 36 Avenue. We also had a satellite facility located a block down the street from us.

At the time of this story, Enrique had worked for us for over a year, and he was such a skilled mechanic, we had transferred him to help at our satellite facility.

One day, Enrique came by our main office to see me, and he came with his wife and daughter.

Enrique explained to me how he had entered the United States from Colombia, by way of Europe, and he said he had done it by using a student Visa.

Once he was in the United States he had simply just overstayed his visa.

Enrique said, it was always his intention to return to Colombia and apply for a legitimate U.S. work visa. He wanted to do this so he could live in the United States legally, and then he could eventually apply to become a U.S. resident and obtain a “Green Card”, and then become a U.S. citizen.

Enrique said he wouldn’t have a problem obtaining a U.S. work visa in Colombia, he was sure that it wouldn’t take him more than four weeks to do it.

Enrique was concerned, because he was hoping I would keep his job open until he returned.

I promised Enrique that not only would I keep his job open for him, but I also offered to write a letter to take to Colombia with him, guaranteeing that he had valid employment waiting for him in the United States.

About a month passed, and Enrique’s wife came by to say it was taking him a lot longer than he had anticipated, it seemed like there were a lot of people ahead of him, all of them waiting for visas.

And sure enough, a few weeks later, Enrique did return to Miami with a valid work Visa.

About six months passed, and Enrique again came to my office to see me.

This time he said that his uncle was opening an import business and he had asked Enrique to come work as a partner with him.

Enrique said he wanted to tell me about it because I had helped him with his visa and he felt bad leaving me.

I told Enrique not to worry, I was happy for him, and he would be welcome to return to work for us if he ever wished to do so.

It was about another 60 days, when Enrique’s wife called to tell me that Enrique had just been arrested for murder.

Enriqu’s wife said that they were out shopping and they were just returning to their car with their groceries, when suddenly two Miami Detectives approached them and asked Enrique if his name was Enrique Davilla Torres. Enrique said no, he said his name was Enrique Davilla Suarez.

They then put him in handcuffs and took him away.

Listening to her, I didn’t quite know what to say, so I asked her if she had gotten an attorney, and she said yes.

I told her to please have Enrique’s attorney contact me, and for her to keep me informed of what was going on.

About another 60 days passed, and Enrique’s wife called me again, and I told her that I hadn’t heard a single word from their attorney.

His wife said that Enrique’s attorney had taken $3,000.00 from her family, and so far, he had done nothing.

She said that Enrique just called her and said he was going to be extradited to a New York prison.

After hearing that, I admit I had absolutely no idea of what to do.

I waited another month, but I still never heard anything from Enrique’s attorney or from anyone else.

Then one day, we received two visitors to our office, they were both Miami detectives.

One of them said he was from the Miami homicide division, and the other detective, who spoke fluent Cuban Spanish said he was from Immigration.

My partner and I quickly showed them into our office, as we were anxious to hear what was happening to Enrique.

Turns out that they had quite a story to tell us.

They said that our Enrique Davilla Torres was really a Cuban Mafia drug dealer.

They then said Enrique was at a drug party in New York City, along with 10 other people, and he had gotten into an argument with two of them, and then he had shot them dead.

After we heard the story, we informed the detectives that they had the wrong guy.

We said, Enrique was a Colombian, not a Cuban, and his name was Suarez not Torres.

I told them I knew for sure Enrique was Colombian because I had helped him when he went to get a visa in Colombia.

My partner, who had lived in Colombia and spoke flawless Colombian Spanish, told the detectives that Enrique spoke Colombian Spanish, not Cuban Spanish, and my partner then asked the Hispanic immigration detective why he didn’t know the difference between the two distinctly different Spanish dialects, it was obvious Enrique wasn’t Cuban.

However, after a while, we could see that the two Miami detectives weren’t listening to us at all, they both said Enrique’s picture had been picked out of the INS file, by eight witnesses in New York, and they had all positively identified Enrique as being the murderer.

We were speechless, we told them that Enrique was in Miami on the day of the murder, and we could prove it.

I personally remembered Enrique had said good morning to me on that very day.

The two Miami detectives didn’t appear to care what we said.

Then about another fifteen months passed without us hearing a single word from anyone.

One day a very overstuffed Irish New York detective in a lousy fitting business suit showed up at our office.

He was absolutely the 100% stereotype of a New York Irish policeman; he even had a big red nose and a thick Irish brogue.

He said he was with the New York Police Department and he wanted to discuss the Enrique Davilla Torres case with us.

We automatically assumed he was part of Enrique’s defense team.

We showed the detective into our office and then we called over all of Enrique’s co-workers.

We called them all over because they all wanted to swear Enrique was in Miami on the day of the murder.

We even had a copy of Enrique’s paycheck to show him, it proved Enrique was in Miami on the day of the murder.

I asked the New York detective if he had read the file from when the two Miami detectives had interviewed us, he said no he hadn’t.

When I showed him their cards, he said he had never even heard of them.

I then told the Detective we would all be willing to fly to New York to testify for Enrique.

The detective advised us that if we did testify for Enrique, it would be at our expense, and we might have to do it several times, as the prosecution certainly would keep delaying the case.

He also said if we testified for Enrique, and if he was still convicted, we all might all be charged with perjury.

To us, listening to this guy made the situation look bleak for Enrique.

That’s when the detective came right out and told us he was working for Enrique’s prosecution not his defense.

He said he wasn’t here in Miami to help Enrique, and he said, “Remember I have eight eyewitnesses swearing Enrique was the murderer”.

Then we showed him Enrique’s paycheck, proving Enrique was working in Miami that day.

Early the next day the Irish detective called just to tell me he was heading back to New York.

I told him that I personally had decided to cover the expenses of having all our people fly to New York to testify for Enrique.

I felt that the Irish detective had been friendly enough, so I could ask him how come Enrique’s defense attorney had never contacted us.

I asked him, and he said he didn’t know why.

So, I asked him, on a scale of 1 to 10 how good was Enrique’s public defense attorney?

The Irish detective said Enrique’s public defense attorney was less than a 5.

I asked him if he would tell me who the attorney was, and he promised that he would.

After another two weeks passed and we still had not heard anything regarding Enrique’s situation, I was beginning to think all our conversation with the Irish detective was a complete waste of time.

Then one day, as I sat at my desk, I heard a loud commotion going on in the hallway in front of my office, so I got up to see what was going on.

Standing there in the hallway talking with our office staff, was this poor gaunt looking, pale faced Enrique Davilla Suarez.

His pants were baggy, and his belt was way too long now from the weight he had lost, but he had a big grin on his face and he came over and he hugged me.

I was shocked, and I asked him what happened, how did he get out of prison?

Enrique said he was in prison for a total of 17 months, and he said that every time they called him Enrique Davilla Torres, he wouldn’t respond to them, because it wasn’t his name.

One morning they brought him to a small room, where there was a big fat Irish detective with a red nose, and there was also a lie detector machine and a translator.

They hooked Enrique up to the lie detector machine and using a translator they asked him lots of questions.

He said, that after the test the Irish detective simply said to him, “Get the hell out of here”.

Since Enrique spoke little English, he didn’t 100% know exactly what was going on.

The Spanish translator told him he was being freed from prison and he could thank his boss and his friends in Miami for his release.

Within an hour he was then told to put all his belongings in a paper bag, he was going home.

As Enrique walked out of prison he was approached by Jesus Rangel a reporter for the associated Press.

It appears, that our Enrique was now a very famous guy in the Colombian press.

His false arrest story had also been printed in every other South American newspaper.

Enrique told the reporter Jesus Rangel that he didn’t know exactly why he was released but he was told it was because of his boss in Miami, and he then gave Jesus my name address and phone number.

So, once Enrique was back in Miami, the first thing he did was come to see me.

I was so happy to see him that I took $500.00 from the petty cash drawer and I gave it to him.

I told him to take his wife out for supper, and when he felt better, he could come back and work for us again if he wanted.

When Enrique left, I received a phone call from Jesus Rangel and he said he had run Enrique’s story in the Associated Press.

That’s when I started receiving lots of phone calls seeking requests for interviews, they came from radio stations all over the country.

Even our local Miami Channel 10 called me and wanted to come over for a video interview.

It was three days later when Enrique drove up to my office, he was driving his old junk 1970’s Plymouth and he had his suitcase with him, I knew immediately there was trouble.

He told me that for the last 10 months he had heard nothing from his wife, he said that it was her father that sent him the money for his return flight to Miami, not his wife.

Eventually his wife’s family told him the bad news, his wife had met someone else and she wanted a divorce.

Enrique was heartbroken, he had now lost two years of his life, his wife, his daughter, and he was no longer welcome to live with his wife’s family, and he now had no place to stay.

I called my wife and asked her if I could bring Enrique, the Mafia Murderer home with me.

My wife already knew the story, and she said yes, and that’s how Enrique came to temporally live with us.