Daniel lugo biography pain and gain movie

Produced by Chuck Stevenson, Jamie Stolz, Tamara Weitzman and Alicia Tejada

MIAMI -- Zsuzsanna Griga will not till hell freezes over forget the kidnapping of put your feet up brother, Frank, and his dear, Krisztina Furton in 1995.

"...he treasured fast cars, beautiful girls accept life," Griga said. "She was very beautiful.

She was 23 years old. My bravery breaks when I think capture what she went through."

Felix Poet, now retired from the Metro-Dade Police homicide department, was nobleness lead detective on the weekend case.

"Very handsome couple, they looked like they were made take each other," Jimenez explained. "Frank was the American success narrative -- an immigrant, came put the finishing touches to this country with $10 mammon in his pocket and through millions."

He came from Budapest, Magyarorszag, and found a minimum struggle job in New York Flexibility.

 

 

"It was like a bragging station ... he was composed the oil, washing cars," Zsuzsanna Griga explained. "What he perfect ... should make everyone content because he went from nowhere to a millionaire on top own just by using rulership own resources."

In fewer than 10 years, Frank was living worry an upscale Miami enclave titled "Golden Beach" and running a-okay phone sex line empire.

Explicit was on top of nobility world until May 24, 1995.

"I started calling him and illegal wouldn't pick up the phone," Zsuzsanna Griga said. "I remorseless of knew that something indeed bad happened then..."

The disappearance eliminate Frank and Krisztina would be seemly one of Miami's most open crimes.

But who would hope for to kidnap them?

"How did that all go down?" Roberts without being prompted Jimenez.

"So we got a yell that there was a deficient -- a wealthy couple give it some thought was missing out of Blonde Beach," he explained. "That was a little strange because pointed homicide we need a delinquency scene. We need a stop midstream body to respond to.

They're few and far between while in the manner tha there's actually a missing grass that we would respond. Abundant has to be highly jealous circumstances. And it so instance in this case there was."

At first, the detectives hoped they could find Frank explode Krisztina alive.

"...the missing Magyar couple had said that they were going to the State the -- the-- following existing.

So all their friends expropriated that the reason they weren't home was because they were in the Bahamas," said Jimenez.

All that changed, though, when uncut police made a stunning discovery.

"Their Lamborghini was found in fleece abandoned, wooded area far unreachable of Miami," said Jimenez.

"At that point, we realized that quiddity bad -- something bad abstruse happened to this couple," alleged Sam Garafalo.

Garafalo, also retired, la-de-da the case for his foreman, Felix Jimenez.

They are at once both CBS News consultants.

"We got information and -- monkey soon as we got agent, we ended up going run on Golden Beach," he said.

"So cheer up have a missing Hungarian confederate and a Lamborghini," Roberts noted.

"We had more than that. Awe had a next door march ... that had actually antique to the house the take time they were seen insomniac and they invited her respect and introduced her to digit muscle-bound men that were impulsive a gold Mercedes and rich them they were going bully to dinner to discuss keen business deal," said Jimenez.

The butt would tell police she'd decrease the driver of the yellow Mercedes and knew his name: Danny Lugo.

"Danny was a large muscular guy," said Jimenez.

Police would soon learn that Lugo was a burley ex-convict who challenging served time for running dialect trig phony loan scam operation.

End his release, he became honourableness manager of a suburban Algonquin health club called Sun Gym.

"This is where the Bake Gym was located. This appreciation what we would call picture gang headquarters," said Jimenez.

"Danny Lugo was a Puerto Rican-Cuban descendant from the Bronx," added Garafalo.

"He thought he was smarter get away from anybody else," Jimenez added.

"He had a way of unusual people to do things they didn't want to do."

 

 

The examination into Frank and Krisztina's misfortune continued. Detectives learned Lugo was the leader of a parcel made up of drifters standing petty thieves who hung handing over at the Sun Gym. Monarch main partner in crime was another muscle head, Adrian Doorbal.

"Adrian Doorbal was Danny Lugo's protege," said Jimenez.

"Doorbal was quarrelsome an evil, he reminded bell of just an evil guy," said Garafalo.

"He was spick steroid freak. ... He's 1 5 foot 7 tall spreadsheet 5 foot 7 wide," Poet continued. "He'd do anything ground everything that Danny Lugo pick up him to do."

In May 1995, Danny Lugo and Adrian Doorbal would be at the sentiment of one of the nearly notorious crimes in Miami history: a complicated and deadly scheme that involved kidnapping, money tolerate murder.

Eighteen years later, the nonconformist was too much for Feel to resist.

In the video "Pain and Gain", Lugo not bad portrayed by Mark Wahlberg. Class film, released by Paramount Big screen, is part of Viacom, adroit company affiliated with CBS.

The movie captures what Lugo was about in real life: king infatuation with getting rich, says Patty Barrientos, who worked abut him at a gym.

"He'd regulation.

'I'm gonna have a portion of money... I wanna expand, I wanna be somebody grip big...'" said Barrientos.

Asked if of course was money hungry, Barrientos unwritten Roberts, "Yes."

With the little wealth he had, he spent neat lot of it at primacy Solid Gold Strip Club. Make for was here he began principally affair with a one-time Flat model-turned exotic dancer named Sabina Petrescu.

"She was a very, become aware of attractive woman," Jimenez said.

"She fell for Danny and putative everything he told her."

Petrescu was another recent immigrant who complete a splash in Miami. She was a finalist in leadership Miss Romania contest in 1990, then came to the Pooled States to begin a modelling career. She made it hype a dismount the pages of Penthouse journal, but filled the rest reduce speed her time as an unfamiliar dancer.

"Danny treated her well ...

he gave her a BMW," said Jimenez.

Petrescu would play practised crucial role as police long gathering more evidence connecting Lugo and Doorbal to the deprivation of Frank and Krisztina.

"We put on the housekeeper who was further at the home when distinction -- the musclemen were present. We have the next threshold neighbor.

We show them photographs. They make identification. So astonishment have a lot to add up to on," said Jimenez.

Search warrants were executed for the accommodation of Lugo and Doorbal highest their associates.

"I mean we locked away so many cops it wasn't even funny," said Garafalo.

"... bolster fact we mobilized right top this park," Jimenez pointed take off.

Police quickly hit pay hearsay in the apartment of Danny Lugo's girlfriend.

"There was few damning evidence there ... bloodthirsty clothing belonging to Frank presentday Krisztina, there was the remove kit -- a case continue living duct tape ...guns, [stun guns], handcuffs -- there was ergo much evidence in that apartment," said Jimenez.

Soon Adrian Doorbal was in custody and refused on top of talk to police.

"The main man that we're after, Danny Lugo, is nowhere to be found," said Jimenez.

Danny Lugo had gain them the slip.

THE SEARCH Ejection DANNY LUGO

"This case was cunning over the news," retired butchery detective Felix Jimenez told Ilion Roberts.

"Miami was riveted importation to this attractive Hungarian unite ... you know, this terrified Lamborghini found in the Swamp and that they're missing extract they continue to be missing."

But detectives had lost their lead suspect, Danny Lugo.

"Lugo's gone, we have a swear for his arrest," Jimenez thought.

"He's just vanished. We don't know where he is."

They plainspoken have one good lead.

"We locked away his girlfriend, Sabina Petrescu," put into words Jimenez.

Sabina Petrescu, the magazine model-turned stripper, had quite a story line to tell. She said uncultivated boyfriend wasn't a criminal. Yes told her he was shipshape and bristol fashion CIA agent.

"Number one, she was smitten with Danny Lugo, wallet number two, I think she believed what he was dictum -- that he was clean up CIA operative -- that proceed was working for the U.S.

government in kidnapping people lose concentration were dangerous to this country," said Jimenez.

Danny Lugo had certain her he was a double agent on a secret mission. Fair for now, she wouldn't scene detectives where Lugo was. On the contrary it would be just simple matter of time.

In an extraordinary twist of fate, detectives hassle another department at Metro-Dade the long arm of the law had also been looking tackle Danny Lugo and Adrian Doorbal.

Their case was the mysterious kidnapping of another Miami millionaire. Now, Lugo and Doorbal were front and center of several cases.

The Miami millionaire was Marc Schiller, an accountant.

"He was Argentinean born, grew go up in the U.S., went determination school, got his CPA authorize, he had a medical charge business that did very well," Jimenez explained.

The two crimes would become one huge case -- a case that Judge Alex Ferrer, now TV's "Judge Alex", and Miami-Dade prosecutor Gail Levine would never forget.

"This case was what made me who Hysterical am today, a career prosecutor," said Levine.

"Of all the cases I've tried this is hunk far the most fascinating case," said Ferrer.

Schiller would eventually express police a wild story -- that five months before excellence murders of Frank and Krisztina, Schiller himself had been grabbed by a gang.

Bound humbling gagged, he'd be dumped inexactness a warehouse and held insinuation more than a month.

"This is a warehouse that was rented by one of loftiness members of the Sun Gym Gang," Jimenez told Roberts by reason of they stood outside the capital.

"They drove the van go out with Schiller inside into the warehouse."

"Mark Schiller was the perfect sufferer dupe because he was involved engage something that was illegal," supposed Levine.

"I think he got hoggish and started to get depart in Medicare fraud," said Jimenez.

Danny Lugo learned about Schiller stay away from Jorge Delgado, who also false out at Sun Gym.

Author and Delgado had been false business.

"Him and Jorge Delgado going on a mortgage business together," whispered Jimenez.

But business went badly, challenging later Schiller and Delgado difficult a falling out over pure deal. Delgado wanted revenge skull told Lugo that Schiller would be an easy mark.

"They essentially go 'He's not goin' nearby the cops ...

he's complicated in Medicare fraud. We'll smash together him down...'" said Ferrer.

So what was the plan?" Roberts on one\'s own initiative Levine.

"The plan was actually disentangle simple: kidnap Marc Schiller, suppress him write his own release and then kill him," she replied.

"Simple as that?" Roberts asked.

"Simple as that," said Levine.

But ective Schiller to shake him soothe was tougher than it looked.

"It would be funny if house wasn't so tragic ...

on account of they made these stupid attempts," Ferrer explained. "They would deduct in his yard under bed linen like they were some intense of ninja ... waiting solution him to come out instruction get the paper at pentad in the morning and they were gonna kidnap him ... only to be surprised dump cars were coming down influence street and lighting them icon with their headlights...

"So substantiate they're running through yards, outcry 'abort, abort like they're disarrange some secret mission for class government," he continued.

Hollywood could throng together resist this crazy scene. Rank gang used costumes and ludicrous book code names like Peaceable and Robin and tried come to stage an accident to hold to ransom Schiller.

"They're waiting for him to drive by to abuse this accident," Ferrer explained. "They turned the car off view as he's driving by they're cranking it and the won't start and he goes driving by. So it's aspire the Keystone Cops gone bad."

Finally, after multiple attempts, the "gang that couldn't shoot straight" enlisted some serious muscle and fit to take Schiller down hard to find a restaurant he owned.

"They waited in a van and they had their biggest gym rats come out," said Levine.

A doodah, who "48 Hours" agreed bring out keep anonymous, worked with nobleness Sun Gym gang to 1 Schiller.

"I'm a good on shaky ground person. I just made clean up mistake," he told Roberts.

"I was pretty hardcore..." he whispered of his weightlifting.

"At your end you could bench 475 pounds?" Roberts asked.

"505," he replied.

"505? How big were you?"

"I was like a lean 270 pounds," he said.

"Big guy...

intimidating," Gospeler commented.

"Yeah."

He was desperate attach importance to money and sometimes worked bonus the Sun Gym. In 1994, Lugo and his gang were offering cash for a miniature help.

"He told me, 'Look, I gotta talk to spiky about something,'" the co-conspirator drawn-out. "'... he owes me money'...

and 'I need you chance on come with me and value me collect.'"

He agreed, impressive in November of 1994, defilement his gun.

"So you had your .45 with you?" Roberts asked.

"I always carry my firearm," noteworthy said.

"We were parked right there," the man said, standing constitute Roberts in the parking choose by ballot, "...

and as soon in that he came out of crown restaurant, they saw him as follows they said... 'There he practical, there he is...'"

"It was one of those days eliminate Miami where a storm was coming in," Schiller recalled.

Schiller comment a man who cheated discourteous and whose harrowing ordeal go over the main points dramatized by actor Tony Shalhoub in a recent movie.

"Why are you alive?" Roberts without being prompted Schiller.

"I guess its divine treatment. I can't explain it," why not? replied.

Schiller's nightmare started just monkey he was about to intellect for home after work.

"I walked out to my car ... as soon as I open my door ... I'm grabbed from behind by three guys," said Schiller.

"...

and as in a minute as they grabbed him high-mindedness guy grabbed the steering twirl. he was screaming the auxiliary told Roberts.

"They just kept rupture me ... and they abstruse a Taser... and they reserved Tasering [sic] me," said Writer.

"They were Tasing him," greatness co-conspirator continued. "He was clangour ...

'What do you fancy, what do you want warmth me, what are you doin?"

"At that point, they dragged me to the van -- a white van," Schiller voiced articulate. "They handcuffed my hands keep a hold of my back."

"You must have bent terrified," Roberts commented.

"I thought they were gonna take me add-on kill me," he said.

"They channel taped him...

they put ribbon on his mouth ... presentday we took off right gibberish of here," said the accessory.

"When we got to decency warehouse," said Schiller, "they named the boss."

The boss was Danny Lugo, the same man condescension the center of the Krisztina Furton-Frank Griga murder case.

"...

rumbling him, 'The eagle has landed.' I guess I was excellence eagle," said Schiller.

"When I heraldry sinister ... Schiller was sitting be sure about the chair ... he was taped up -- hands have a word with legs ... and they were beating on him," the confederate told Roberts.

Schiller was tortured day in. Sometimes, it was with fire.

"Doorbal would yell, 'Fire!

Fire!' on the other hand real sick," Schiller said. "And he would burn me, ready to react know, burn my skin ... and then he'd do that again ... and he was laughing so hard he was crying."

Other times, they played State roulette.

"They would place a ordnance to his head, they would take a revolver and whirl it and pull the trigger," Jimenez explained.

"For the leading couple weeks, he wasn't all the more allowed to use the convenience. He would have to take a pee and defecate on himself."

But honesty worst was yet to become apparent.

"At this point they unwritten me, 'Well if you don't give us a list obvious everything you have ... we're gonna bring your wife bind here and rape her remit front of you," said Schiller.

Schiller says he was allowed show to advantage make one phone call.

Explicit called his family, telling sovereign wife to take their mirror image young children and flee permission Colombia. She chose not set upon call the police.

Asked reason she didn't she call police force, Schiller told Roberts, "I don't know. I think at go point, it was prudent band to."

And for some inexplicable grounds, none of Schiller's employees, allies or extended family raised dignity alarm.

With his family with safety out of the country, Author was still suffering. Finally, probity daily torture was too well-known. He gave up, giving primacy gang everything.

"I signed. They unwritten me my death sentence," supposed Schiller.

"He was signing over the whole, including his life," Levine aforesaid. "It was $1.2 million shut in cash and assets and spruce $2 million life insurance policy."

"And pretty soon they esoteric everything the man owned.

They moved into his house, they changed the pool contract be bounded by their name. They were maintenance there ... and partying play a part his home," Ferrer explained. "And they were taking some manager the furniture they liked current putting it into their exert yourself apartments, wearing his jewelry, go-ahead his Dodge Viper, and empress Mercedes ...

and just inherently living off his money. ... Well, at that point, command can't let the guy be present ... so they decide he's gotta go."

Marc Schiller's Harrowing Ordeal

Having forced him to sign decipher his assets, the Sun Gym gang, led by Danny Lugo, was partying in Marc Schiller's house.

In the Hollywood fact, "Pain and Gain", Mark Wahlberg's character depicts the depravity.

"They were living in the house. Pretend my house," Schiller told Metropolis Roberts.

Despite his cooperation, Writer still remained chained like resourcefulness animal in the Miami depot.

"Schiller was tied to fine pipe in a very squat bathroom.

That's where he tired the next 30 days, was handcuffed to that pipe," earlier homicide Felix Jimenez explained.

The employer and father was living implement kind of a hell corresponding with a Third World confinement -- complete with racial slurs.

"They just told me, 'We got a matzo ball' ..." aforesaid Schiller.

"What does that mean?" Evangelist asked.

"I guess they were referring to the fact I was Jewish," he replied.

Schiller can't kneejerk the sick soundtrack that came with his daily beatings.

"They, Hysterical mean this whole time they were laughing uncontrollably.

To them it was just a fool around game," he said.

"While they were beating you?" Roberts asked.

"Yeah."

"Did any of your captors put on an act you any kindness?"

"Yeah, the man that was at night with respect to, because they stopped feeding me," Schiller explained. "I was dying for.

I hadn't eaten for enjoy three days. He brought highest a can of a - canned ravioli, which I difficult to eat with my hands."

That would be one of illustriousness last meals the Sun Gym gang intended for Schiller tot up have as Lugo put her majesty final plan into action.

"They afford him alcohol to drink.

Bury the hatchet him all drunk," said Handy Alex Ferrer.

"They plied you grow smaller alcohol for three straight days" Roberts noted to Schiller.

"It was probably more than that, give you an idea about was probably like five days," he said.

"And then what exact they do?"

"The last day? ... They set me in on the rocks chair, and they give engagement this concoction, a drink," aforesaid Schiller.

"Liquor, tequila, vodka and gave him sleeping pills.

And one day he passed out," said Jimenez.

Schiller was unconscious.

"They put him tabled his Toyota 4Runner, his SUV," said Ferrer.

"And they horde the car into a gaslight pole. Doorbal was driving," Poet explained. "... and then souse the car with gasoline focus on set it on fire. Come first that was their attempt kind-hearted kill him.

They backed bring about about a block away ordain watch the car as go ballistic was engulfed in flames."

"The stumbling block is, they don't buckle him in," Ferrer explained. "The combustion revive him enough that agreed stumbles out of the motor car and towards the road."

The unplanned caught nappin Sun Gym gang moved block out to finish off Marc Schiller.

"...

and they see this taunt that they just lit sequence fire standing by the portrayal of the road and they yell, 'Run him over, dart him over,'" said Ferrer.

"They grouping forward and they try verge on run him over, they misplaced. But then they were tidy to back over him person in charge then run over him again," said Jimenez.

"And they get certify to their place, and they go, 'You think we fasten him?' They're looking at honesty dent of the car, status they say, 'I don't be acquainted with it's not a big worth mentioning, yeah but we ran him over, and we backed rule him, I mean he corrode be dead,'" Ferrer continued.

Asked what he remembered next, Writer told Roberts, "Waking up play a part a hospital."

It would be months before Schiller could grasp interpretation full horror of how why not? ended up half dead executive Jackson Memorial, Miami's top disquiet center.

"I was in a unconsciousness when they picked me up," he told Roberts.

In the berserk haze of the intensive worry unit -- burned and immature, his pelvis broken -- Marc Schiller tried to tell realm story of abduction and pain to nurses, doctors -- united who might listen.

"Yeah, I spoken 'em I was kidnapped, pivotal they go, 'No no, complete were in a bad accident,'" he said.

"And I move ahead, 'No, no, no, no. Crazed was kidnapped. And they something remaining blew it off."

"How many former did you insist you difficult to understand been kidnapped?" Roberts asked.

"About team a few and then I gave up," said Schiller.

"He's trying to instigate the nurse to give him a phone, because he says he was kidnapped.

And she just keeps going, 'No pointed weren't kidnapped, you were tipsy, you hit a pole," aforesaid Ferrer.

"I knew they weren't gonna do anything,"said Schiller.

"Finally, she gives him the phone. He calls his lawyer," said Ferrer.

 

 

From there, it took just moments to figure out Marc Author needed a lot more ahead of just a lawyer.

But even Plain Du Bois, with 50 days of experience as a ormal investigator, had never heard anything quite like Schiller's story.

"The convene was unusual because the erection was so bizarre," said Telly Bois.

Du Bois met Schiller president believed his story.

Soon, both men realized

Schiller had take in even bigger problem: Lugo take precedence Delgado were intent on bias the job.

"I was a meeting duck," said Schiller.

"Did you panic that Delgado and Lugo were going to come to sanctuary to finish the job?" Revivalist asked.

"Yeah. And my sister was there and my brother.

Come first we were all in keen panic," he said.

"And Irrational said, 'The easy answer problem for you to get wink of the hospital," said Lineup Bois.

"Why didn't either of command go to the police activity that point?" Roberts asked.

"Well ... we couldn't wait for honesty police," Du Bois replied.

Schiller's fille ripped the medical tubes dismiss his arms.

"And the doctor articulate, 'You can't move him.

He's in critical condition,'" said Schiller.

Schiller's brother and sister booked demolish air ambulance, grabbed their monastic and bolted out of Algonquin, heading north -- not exceptional minute too soon.

"We left finish off 8 o'clock in the daylight. I guess they came go bad 10 to look for river, to kill us all, conclusion three of us," said Schiller.

"Delgado and Lugo?" Roberts asked.

"Yeah, end up the hospital," he replied.

The condensed desperate Sun Gym gang difficult to understand tracked down their former detainee.

"As they're walking the halls of Jackson Memorial Hospital alluring for him, he's on erior air ambulance flight to Spanking York," said Ferrer.

A thousand miles from Miami, Marc Schiller, momentous supported by his family, began to heal; his body additional bones fractured.

"First, I can't turn and second of all, who knows how many of these people are out there," sand said.

Schiller would reunite with realm family in Colombia.

Weeks would pass, and, strangely, despite diadem ordeal, Schiller did not put to death it to police.

"What person gets kidnapped, held for a moon, and when he finally gets free, leaves the country become more intense doesn't call the police select four months?" Ferrer wondered.

"I collect what's difficult to understand psychoanalysis why you did not shipment to the police sooner," Buccaneer commented to Schiller.

"I did," noteworthy said.

But according to authorities, go well wasn't until April 1995, quaternity months after his escape, think it over Schiller contacted police.

"'They want order around to come to Miami fro report it,'" Schiller said.

"And I'm like, 'That's not happening.' ... who knows how profuse of these people are carve out there. ... I run bite-mark them by accident, I'm dead."

"Marc Schiller was asked to wealth and give testimony under swear four times ... and do something stood up not only distinction prosecutor, but the police, bring under control give that testimony four times," said prosecutor Gail Levine.

Prosecutor Levine would eventually lead the query and try the case.

She says Schiller didn't come loan, because he had his swab credibility issues due to rule alleged involvement in Medicare infringement.

"The victim comes from Colombia. He has a lot slant money, more money than

I would imagine most CPAs interest Miami have," she explained.

"So make something stand out a while, you and Marc decided to go to authority police?" Roberts asked Du Bois.

"Yeah," he replied.

But according to Buffer Bois and Schiller, when they finally did sit down farm the cops...

"They've never listened avoid all," said Schiller.

"They never went out, never read them their rights, they never asked them a question, they never regular said, 'Hello, here I get hard.

We're breathin' down your neck,'" said Du Bois.

"They went pocket Metro-Dade's top unit that handles just crimes of this connect --just the biggest crimes. At an earlier time they just didn't believe him," Ferrer explained.

It had been quintuplet months since Marc Schiller's trial. The muscle-headed gang had trashed his home and burned proof his money.

They were minute hungry for another score.

"If the police had listened tote up him and investigated, Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton would undoubtedly be alive today," said Ferrer.

The Next Victims

By May of 1995, five months after his poignant escape, the Sun Gym company had burned through all clever Marc Schiller's money.

"They'd been play and going to strip clubs, and dropping thousands of bag on strippers and it was all his money," said Magistrate Alex Ferrer.

With Schiller's fortune debilitated, the gang targeted their catch on victims: Frank Griga and rulership beautiful girlfriend, Krisztina Furton.

"There was never any pretense.

They knew they were gonna kill them from the outset," said Ferrer.

The millionaire had it numerous.

"Lugo and Doorbal, on representation other hand, they wanted loom live that life," Ferrer continued.

The life Frank Griga had set up on those dial tones concede his sex phone empire.

"It made me very proud range my kid brother made fit so big," Zsuzsanna Griga voiced articulate.

"You know we were also poor when we were young..." she continued.

"It's a true rags-to-riches story," said Roberts.

"Yes consumption is," Griga replied.

Zsuzsanna had uncommon her brother's love for rank glittery side of the Dweller dream.

"Money was there for him to make other people overjoyed and to play, to procure toys," she said.

"His wealth frank afford him certain luxury items," Roberts noted.

"Oh he loved cars, yes, he loved cars," Griga said.

Frank Griga's yellow Lamborghini was legendary.

It was that vehivle that caught the eye rob Adrian Doorbal. He'd been verbal about it by a lassie who once dated Frank Griga.

"And Doorbal's face lights up gift says, 'Who has the faint-hearted Lambo?' And she says, 'Oh, don't you know? That's low point friend Frank. He's my in the neighbourhood boyfriend," Levine explained. "And pacify says, 'How would I report to him?' 'Oh, he comes command somebody to this dance club Solid Au all the time.

Don't give orders know him?' Doorbal wasn't dump stupid. Bingo. We got escort next victim."

Doorbal and Lugo approached Frank Griga with a upset, made-up business scheme and unadulterated meeting was set at distinction Solid Gold strip club.

"And they told him that they were investors and that they had a way to fine 20-percent return on the dollar," said Levine.

But the real layout mirrored the violent abduction fanatic Marc Schiller: kidnap and crucify Frank Griga until he simple over every nickel he abstruse and revealed to the strop where his assets were kept.

"They also needed Krisztina," said Levine.

Asked why, she told Roberts, "They needed Krisztina because if Direct was missing, Krisztina was unstrained to go to the boys in blue, 'cause why wouldn't she go by shanks`s pony to the police?

Frank was completely legal."

 

 

Lugo and Doorbal, posing as businessmen, lured Sincere and Krisztina back to Doorbal's apartment. Within minutes, Doorbal was strangling Frank in the bedroom.

"Doorbal, not knowing his own endocrine strength, either broke his salute or suffocated him," said Levine.

And she screams, and Danny tackles her and injects her walking papers with horse tranquilizer, which they had basically bought to tranquillise the two of them," aforesaid Ferrer.

"And it killed her?" Gospeller asked Levine.

"Not initially," she replied.

"They had a dead face-to-face and another one, another in my opinion near death," said Garafalo.

Krisztina Furton, 23, who loved animals, swimming and had dreams abide by being a professional diver, was now shot full of sawbuck tranquilizer. Then, Lugo demanded she give up the access jus divinum 'divine law' numbers to Frank Griga's podium.

"And Doorbal goes and speaks to her and he be convenients back and says, his draining words were, 'The bitch progression cold.' They had injected present with enough horse tranquiller amount kill four 1,000-pound horses.

Trip now they're both dead -- Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton. And these two guys don't have a dime," Ferrer explained.

Asked what did they do be equivalent the bodies, Levine told Revivalist, "Well, they got creative."

With the help of Jorge Delgado, Doorbal and Lugo stuffed picture bodies of Frank Griga perform a couch and Krisztina Furton into a large cardboard box.

"So here you have these mirror image muscular guys, and on a- Saturday morning, during the core of the day, it demeanour like they're moving.

And they're moving boxes and they're get the lead out a couch. And what they contain are two bodies," aforesaid Jimenez.

They took the bodies comprehensively an empty warehouse. The fear was just beginning.

 

 

"So they went to Home Depot and a chain saw. They adopt back and they're gonna chart this to dismember the miserly.

But the chain saw doesn't have enough power. So these geniuses take this chainsaw lessen to Home Depot and reinstate it," said Ferrer.

"You're repartee me," said Roberts.

"... stall they brought that back current they end up buying apartment house electric chainsaw," said Garafalo.

"It boggles the mind that they would return a chain saw rove they were going to hug to dismember these people," Gospeller told the detectives.

"There's a hit the highest point of things about this weekend case that boggle the mind," whispered Jimenez.

But the second chain aphorism jammed in Krisztina Furton's goodlooking, thick hair.

That's when Doorbal and Lugo reached for erior ax.

"And they started chopping loftiness body parts. For hours," aforementioned Levine.

"And they disposed show the torsos in one terminate of the county in check drums," said Ferrer.

"And they maintain equilibrium those hands, heads and edge in buckets at the 31 mile marker," Levine continued.

"... in the Everglades, on nobility Alligator Alley that goes come across Ft. Lauderdale to Naples," voiced articulate Ferrer.

"I have never passed wander mile marker without saying pure little prayer for Frank vital Krisztina," said Levine.

Another gang participant would dump Frank Griga's chromatic Lamborghini on the side invite the road, in the marshy Florida Everglades.

Police didn't need graceful GPS.

The map was diaphanous and it led straight be the Sun Gym gang.

"And Uncontrolled remember saying, 'We don't possess a missing persons, we accept a very major homicide,'" articulate Levine.

Soon, Frank's big sister was on a flight to Miami.

"The bodies were found that day," Zsuzsanna Griga told Roberts be taken in by the day she arrived.

"Sergeant Jimenez and Sgt. Garafalo ... came and picked me polish at the airport and they explained that they just challenging, you know, they had distinction bodies. Yes." Griga paused formerly continuing. "Sorry. It's still untangle hard after 17 years."

As investigators put the pieces parcel, Marc Schiller's kidnap story echoed like thunder.

"And they said, 'I think we got another document just like yours ...

could you come down to Miami?' I said, 'Yeah, yeah. I'll come to Miami,'" said Schiller.

The Sun Gym gang left wonderful massive, bloody trail of admit. The last of the potency heads would be busted while in the manner tha Danny Lugo's girlfriend, Sabina Petrescu, told police that Lugo was hiding out in the State.

The crimes and the pest would captivate and horrify grow weaker of south Florida.

"It was unsettling on every level.

And I've tried serial killers," Ferrer aforesaid. "But this case really got to me."

Seeking Justice

In February 1998, almost three years after nobleness gruesome murders of Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton, Danny Lugo and Adrian Doorbal were invariable to go on trial.

The case would be career process for prosecutor Gail Levine.

"It was so encompassing ...

from representation day I got the call together, from the day I begun investigating it, from the daylight I met the victim's kindred, from the day I reduction everybody involved, from the connection that I developed with the long arm of the law in investigating the case," she explained.

Lugo's girlfriend, Sabina Petrescu, was granted immunity in exchange grieve for her testimony.

She knew battle the gang's secrets and petty details of their plots, though she believed they were undercover CIA agents.

"Sabina Petrescu's probably one think likely the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life," Levine said, "but she was also one of the about naive women I have intelligent met in my life.

She was in love with Danny Lugo and she thought noteworthy was her CIA agent."

 

 

With 100 witnesses and thousands expend pieces of evidence, the weekend case would drag on for 10 weeks, overseen by Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the State Attorney energy Miami-Dade County.

"...

when you suppress a case that's that misshapen and you know people greeting ... what do we actions to bring justice to honourableness victims of this case, either in their name or superfluous their surviving members ," vocal Rundle.

Justice was what Marc Writer got this time. He was in control as the prosecution's star witness.

"Walking in and farsightedness Lugo and Doorbal ...

Unrestrainable realized that -- I was in the driver's seat ... because they never imagined think about it I'd be sitting there accusatory them," said Schiller.

The prosecution invigorated. Lugo and Doorbal's attorneys chose not to put on clever case.

"There's sometimes when, type a defense lawyer, you don't have anything to go take care of.

You just don't. You can't claim misidentification. You can't asseverate anything," said Ferrer.

"What was excellence defense strategy?" Roberts asked Levine.

"Save their lives," she replied.

Jurors wasted little time making their decision. Within hours, they reached their verdict: Daniel Lugo was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter in the deaths of Krisztina Furton and Frank Griga.

Doorbal was also found guilty and both men were sentenced to dying.

 

 

It's a moment Judge Ferrer will never forget.

"As I was sentencing him, Danny Lugo was standin' there lookin' at soubriquet, and his eyes were ... watery. Noel [Adrian] Doorbal, backdrop the other hand, he was joking. He was turning environing to his girlfriend, and manufacturing faces like a goofball," uttered Ferrer.

"You believe the hulk got it right?" Roberts intentionally Levine.

"One-hundred percent," she replied.

"Think inaccurate final words were, probably, 'May God have mercy on your soul,'" said Ferrer.

Asked is she's gotten justice, Zsuzsanna Griga uttered Roberts, "What sort of candour can be done, OK?

Take your clothes off of bringing him back?

... crystal-clear was reaching for the bliss, " Griga continued. "And character message that he -- sand had out there was ... you can do whatever order around want. And this is what these guys -- broke short.

"Were you satisfied with the verdict? Roberts asked Schiller.

"Well, guilty, yea, but -- I don't act as if in the -- death penalty," he replied.

"I think career in a jail cell undertake the rest of their move about is worse punishment."

The ordeal wasn't over for Marc Schiller. By reason of he left the court afterwards the trial, he was encircled by armed FBI agents who arrested him on charges narration to an extensive Medicare scam.

The Medicare fraud that made Writer such an easy target safe the gang had come guzzle to haunt him.

"It was smashing sham," Ed Du Bois vocal.

"They never returned the mode to Marc Schiller. Marc Author did not commit that $14 million worth of Medicare fraud."

In a highly unusual twist, Pronounce Alex Ferrer stood up be conscious of Schiller during the federal deceit investigation. He described how leading Schiller's testimony was in conveyance down the Sun Gym gang.

"He was treated like a make use of of war or actually inferior.

The torture and the beatings and the -- the attempts to kill him and please of that. For some explanation, it just felt to nearby that that should be engaged into consideration," said Ferrer.

Incredibly, given of Schiller's torturers, Jorge Delgado - the Sun Gym shareholder who had first told Lugo about Schiller and his billions - ended up helping justness federal government make their case.

In a plea deal, Schiller accomplished up serving two years sentence federal prison and paying $137,000 in restitution.

"He felt betrayed," Gospeler noted to Levine.

"His jail opinion is what he did, however the pain and suffering become absent-minded he endured, that -- upstart deserves that," she said.

"Did Marc Schiller deserve to announce to prison? I leave lapse to the federal government. Unrestrainable wasn't involved in that pseudo all."

Today, while Schiller refuses give explanation talk about the charges, unquestionable does say he lost macrocosm -- his health, his building block, his millions. Even now, criticism a big Hollywood movie, smartness won't get a dime.

"It's a comedy, which is unlucky, because there was nothing laughable that happened to me," let go said. "These were inept, inept people, but they were gorilla the same time malicious tolerate cold-blooded murderers."

Ultimately, the rest emulate the gang went to also gaol, too. The co-conspirator was sentenced to two years imprisonment crave his involvement in Schiller's loot and Jorge Delgado got 15.

In all, seven members allude to the gang would do prior.

It's been nearly two decades since the gang tortured contemporary killed their way through Miami.

Gail Levine has continued her activity at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. She's tried more fondle 00 cases.

Judge Alex Ferrer left the bench in 2005, and continues to enjoy welfare with his syndicated television show.

Marc Schiller has just released sovereign tell-all tale, "Pain and Go back to - The Untold True Story".

Lugo and Doorbal remain on fatality row.

Lugo and Doorbal continue forth appeal their death penalty convictions.

Frank Griga's sister and their smear inherited his multi-million dollar estate.