MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 29-year-old convicted felon is now charged in connection with a woman’s death on an Interstate 95 ramp in early December and a newly-obtained arrest warrant reveals that state transportation workers witnessed her murder in real time on traffic cameras.
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Investigators said Lorent Pion killed Nahomi Cittadini, 22, on the morning of Dec. 7 “by forcefully beating her and dragging her onto the path of oncoming traffic” during a fight near the southbound entrance ramp from Ives Dairy Road in northeast Miami-Dade.
Miramar police arrested Pion, of northwest Miami-Dade, soon after on unrelated charges of failing to stop at the scene of an accident and aggravated fleeing. At the time, he was considered a “person of interest” in Cittadini’s death. He’s now facing a second-degree murder charge.
According to the arrest warrant, authored on Dec. 18 by Detective Malia Carson of what was then the Miami-Dade Police Department, troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol were initially sent to the scene after two workers with the Florida Department of Transportation’s Traffic Management Center reported a man and a woman fighting along the side of the road.
FHP had alerted FDOT after receiving a report of a black SUV in the ditch, the detective wrote. Both FDOT workers described what they witnessed live on traffic cameras soon after 6 a.m.
The woman, later identified as Cittadini, “was on the ground fending off the attacker who was standing over (her) throwing punches,” one of the workers said.
Investigators said that the workers watched as Pion “forcefully dragged” Cittadini “away from where the black SUV was parked and towards the I-95 lanes of traffic” and saw multiple vehicles swerving around them.
According to the warrant, Pion then “walked away,” leaving Cittadini on the shoulder. But investigators said as she “crawled back to the emergency shoulder,” the workers watched as Pion “dragged her back to the far-right travel lane in the path of oncoming traffic.”
Another worker told investigators that he saw Pion continue to punch Cittadini until at one point Pion suddenly “jumped back” as a sedan struck Cittadini. Its driver stopped a few hundred yards north.
The worker told investigators that Pion dragged Cittadini “across the grassy median between I-95 and the Ives Dairy Road onramp, towards his black SUV and stopped at the edge of the ramp” as he got back into the SUV and drove near her body.
Investigators wrote that it appeared that Pion was “attempting to load” her body into the SUV when a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crew arrived, stopped next to the vehicle, then left the scene “approximately 30 to 45 seconds later,” followed by Pion in his SUV.
One of the FDOT workers “observed that Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel drove by (Cittadini) and did not stop,” Carson wrote.
Carson wrote that later on, at around 7 a.m., one of the workers told investigators that “out of curiosity, he and his co-workers turned back to the cameras in the area and observed blood stains on the asphalt where (Cittadini) was struck by the vehicle.”
“He observed a blood trail leading to where (Pion) dragged (her) and then observed (her) body still on the scene, face down and unclothed,” she wrote. “(The worker) immediately notified FHP and his supervisor.”
The other worker told detectives he then saw “a white vehicle, which appeared to be unknown media personnel” stopping by the victim’s body, followed by a state trooper and an MDFR crew.
An assistant medical examiner was later sent to the scene and “determined that the victim’s injuries were caused by blunt force trauma due to being struck by a vehicle.”
Investigators said while at the scene, detectives received information from a witness that Cittadini had last been seen alive with Pion as they left the Cheetah Gentlemen’s Club in Hallandale Beach. He then said Pion “showed up to his home with blood all over his body” and “confronted him.”
What Pion allegedly said in response was redacted from the warrant. Authorities said Pion left the house and then called the witness “and advised him that he just hit a median in the roadway as he was leaving his house and damaged the bottom of his vehicle.”
The witness “then responded to the MDPD Homicide Bureau where he provided a sworn statement outlining the aforementioned details,” the warrant states.
According to the warrant, investigators learned that Pion had been arrested on Aug. 8 for battering Cittadini on Miami Beach and he had been ordered to stay away from her. The witness also told investigators that Pion was also on house arrest at the time.
Investigators were able to track his ankle monitor to an apartment complex at 11700 SW 26th St. in Miramar, Carson wrote, and officers with the MDPD Homicide Task Force responded and saw Pion getting into a black BMW SUV.
“While attempting to initiate a traffic stop, (Pion) began to flee in the vehicle entering Miami-Dade County and returning back into Broward County,” the detective wrote. “At the intersection of Red Road and Miramar Parkway, (he) came to a stop after crashing into multiple vehicles.”
Pion then ran and was taken into custody by Miami-Dade and Miramar police officers, according to the warrant.
As of Tuesday, Pion remained in the Broward County Main Jail.