Police have detained 30-year-old Jonathan Alonso in connection with the fatal stabbing of Louis Piper, 61, this week in Miami Beach. Alonso, whom police had been searching for, was arrested in a park near the American Airlines Arena, Local 10 reports.
Piper's body was found with multiple stab wounds, decomposing in his high-rise condominium on Sunset Harbour South. Neighbors had grown suspicious of a stench emanating from the condo and Piper, a vice president for commercial acquisitions for Bayview Asset Management in Coral Gables, had not shown up for work, the Miami Herald reports:
Miami Beach police said Piper and Alonso had lived together. When Miami Beach police arrived at the apartment, Alonso was gone along with Piper's dog…Miami Beach police released security camera footage that showed Alonso in an elevator in the building and video showing Alonso walking with a small dog in the building. Court records show Piper evicted Alonso from the condo last year. Some Facebook pictures in which they're both tagged show them socializing as a couple.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBoiTBkqEK2/?taken-by=j0nalonso
Residents at Sunset Harbour South told Local 10 News that Alonso was romantically involved with the victim and police confirmed that the couple lived together.
“It's important to stress over the past few days our crime scene investigators and detectives have been working on collecting a lot of evidence from the scene,” Rodriguez said. “This is in its entirety a forensic case for us right now so we're working very patiently and methodically to acquire as much evidence as possible from that scene.”
Court records show Piper and Alonso had problems in the past. Piper had gone to court claiming to be a victim of domestic violence. Alonso has been arrested in the past for grand theft, disorderly conduct and marijuana possession. Last September, Piper filed a complaint in civil court against Alonso saying he lived rent free with him for nearly a year and a half. Piper claims he had asked Alonso to leave the condo for good but he would not.
Watch a CBS Local report:
