MIAMI – Detectives arrested a felon for a burglary at a condo in Miami Beach, and while the criminal case remained pending on Tuesday, the victims in the case sought justice in Miami-Dade County civil court.
Attorney Bernardo Pimentel, II, of Leesfield & Partners, announced the filing of the $12 million negligence lawsuit during a news conference on Tuesday morning in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood.
“Residents should never have to fear for their safety simply walking down the hallway or taking out the trash,” Pimentel said about the 77-page lawsuit.
Pimentel was representing Jacob Kirstein, Kylee Holland, and Gary Burns, who were the victims of the felon’s alleged armed burglary last month in South Beach, records show.
“I was knocked to the floor and the blood was squirting out of my head, while I made eye contact with my fiancee,” Kirstein said while reading a statement. “At that point, I could tell in her eyes and in mine that we both thought we were going to die.”
According to the Miami Beach Police Department, Brian Lopez broke into Flamingo Point at 1508 Bay Road on June 17, in the West Avenue area.
The plaintiffs sought damages from MCZ/Centrum Flamingo II; Apartment Income REIT; Florida State Protection Unit, a security services provider; and Lopez, also known as “King Lay Low,” records show.
“No one, absolutely no one who lives in Flamigo Point, should ever have to experience what we did,” Holland said as she read a statement. “We are speaking out because this cannot be ignored. This has to be changed.”
Holland reported she walked out of her 9th-floor apartment in the North Tower to throw out the trash when Lopez, 31, held her at gunpoint, records show.
Once Lopez, of Hialeah, broke into the apartment where Holland and Kirstein lived, he ordered them and Burns, a guest, to get on the ground, police reported.
Detectives reported Lopez, a convicted felon, pistol-whipped Kirstein during a heist that included $1,500 in Zelle transfers and a carjacking attempt, records show.
After the crimes, a detective stopped Lopez -- who corrections released from prison on Jan. 29 -- at Bay Road and 16th Street, and he had Burns’s stolen cell phone in his pocket, records show.
Lopez appeared in Miami-Dade County court on June 18, and a judge ordered him to stay away from the victims and denied him bond, records show.
Court records show Miami-Dade prosecutors filed two cases against Lopez on June 18. County Circuit Judge Ariel Rodriguez is presiding over both.
One case is for burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and petit theft. The other, which is related to the civil lawsuit, is for robbery home invasion with a firearm, three counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, and burglary with assault or battery.
County inmate records show corrections was holding Lopez on Tuesday at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center.
Local 10 News Assignment Editors Mercedes Cevallos and Frine Gomez contributed to this report. Local 10 News is waiting on statements from the defendants.