MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — An undocumented migrant accused of a high-end burglary in Martin County two years ago is back in custody, deputies announced Wednesday.
Jean Stefano Merinovejar, 35, was arrested in Nevada recently on unrelated charges, according to a post on the Martin County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.
Detectives said they successfully collected DNA samples left at the crime scene of a home in 2023, which tie the Chilean man to the case. The sheriff's office did not specify the location of the home where the break-in occurred.
Initially, there was no DNA hit, but in 2024, investigators said Merinovejar was arrested in Miami-Dade County on similar burglary charges, which triggered the DNA match.
The Martin County Sheriff's Office said they applied for an arrest warrant, but before the warrant could be served, Merinovejar was released from the Krome Detention Center due to a lack of bed space.
"He was assigned an ankle monitor to track his movements, but he cut it off, allowing him to evade capture and continue committing crimes," the sheriff's office said. "In October 2024, Merinovejar was arrested again in Washington. This time, he faced charges of criminal use of personal identification and was released back into society to commit more crimes—until now."
The sheriff's office said he was accused of criminal use of false identification when he was busted in Nevada.
Officials in the Silver State later contacted the Martin County Sheriff's Office regarding Merinovejar's active warrant related to the 2023 case.
On Monday, the Martin County Sheriff's Office traveled to Nevada and took Merinovejar into custody and brought him back to Florida.
"In one final attempt to escape — and we mean run — Merinovejar tried to break loose from our custody and flee from our detectives. He failed," the sheriff's office said.
Merinovejar is being held at the Martin County Jail on a $500,000 bond and has an ICE detainer.
“He has effectively run from every other agency, local and federal, and it's always worked out for him,” Martin County Sheriff's Office Detective Shayne Kennedy said. “This is probably the first time in the past two years where it hasn't worked out for him.”
