Dale Ewers biography: 10 things about Jamaican man accused of killing Cuba’s Mercedes Perez

Dale Ainsley Leo Ewers is a Jamaican man accused of killing Mercedes Castaneda Perez of Havana, Cuba and sexually assaulting her roommate in Miami Beach, Florida, United States on September 21, 1990. They were neighbors in Miami Beach at the time.

Ewers was 7 years younger than Perez. Here are 10 more things about him:

1. Months before Perez’s death on September 21, 1990, he was arrested after being found hiding in the bushes near an apartment complex in Hallandale with a hunting knife and a .32-caliber pistol. After pleading guilty to carrying a concealed weapon, he was sentenced to three years of probation in Broward.
2. On September 21, 1990, he allegedly fatally shot Perez before sexually assaulting her roommate inside the women’s apartment on Pine Tree Drive in Miami Beach. The case went cold.
3. In 2008, he was convicted of burglary in Massachusetts, USA. He spent six months in jail in Massachusetts jail before being deported back to Jamaica.
4. In 2010, the case involving Perez’s murder was assigned to a detective who sent a towel from the crime scene to the Miami-Dade Police Department‘s crime laboratory for testing. In 2012, forensic specialists matched the deoxyribonucleic acid profile from the semen on the towel to him.
5. In October 2016, an arrest warrant was issued for him.
6. On January 18, 2017, he was  extradited from Jamaica to Miami Beach.
7. On January 19, 2017, he was charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery, sexual battery and kidnapping for murdering Perez and raping her friend.
8. In September 2023, he turned 60.
9. On February 26, 2024, his trial for Perez’s murder started before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez and the woman he allegedly sexually assaulted on September 21, 1990 took the stand.
10. On March 1, 2024, jurors found him guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery. On Marc 19, 2024, he will be sentenced.