Police: Suspect Admits Grudge Against Victim Stabbed At Nursing Home
SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) - A new arrest affidavit reveals why a 48-year-old Janitor at a nursing center was viciously stabbed to death on Thursday.
In the new report, Miami-Dade Police say that 51-year-old Gregorio Rojas admitted that he had a grudge against the janitor because of an argument they had months ago. Rojas had been visiting his brother who had been at the facility for the past five months.
Rojas told police that Thursday was the first day they he had brought his knife to the Coral Reef Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The arrest affidavit says Rojas stalked the Janitor and stabbed him multiple times in the neck.
That victim, Danilo Jose Mejia Salazar, 48, was rushed to Kendall Regional Medical Center but he did not survive. The report says Rojas casually walked out of the facility and was arrested.
Rojas went before a judge Friday afternoon and was held without bond after being charged with first degree murder. The judge emphatically told Rojas, "Your bond is no bond."
CBS4's Peter D'Oench spoke with an emotional Gilda Just, who was a friend of the victim and who is a nursing assistant at the center.
"He was a wonderful person. I don't feel he deserved this. I'm very sad," said Just, as she fought back tears. "I have no words to say how I feel to be honest with you. He was a very good co-worker. He was a very good man and very respectable. He was an excellent worker. He was the best."
"He was a funny guy too," she said. "He was always making jokes all the time with his wife. She's a wonderful woman. I just have no words so say. I am so sorry."
D'Oench asked Just about security at the Coral Reef Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
"We have security," she said. "We have security. I just don't know what happened to be honest with you."
D'Oench also spoke with a representative of the home. She told him she was very sorry about the incident but could not comment.
Gregorio Rojas lived in a 4th floor apartment in a building on Southwest 200th Street and Southwest 110th Avenue.
A neighbor said Rojas had been sharing that apartment with his brother until five months ago when his brother was placed in the nursing facility.
Rojas does not have a criminal record.
