Video shows targeted hit-and-run on developer Sergio Pino’s wife that led to 4 arrests

A security video obtained by the Miami Herald shows how the driver of a Home Depot flatbed truck rammed into the vehicle of a wealthy developer’s estranged wife — a brazen assault at her Pinecrest home that has led to an FBI investigation into the developer, Sergio Pino, and the arrests of four Miami-Dade men.

Last August, after a long day fighting her husband in Miami’s divorce court, Tatiana Pino drove to her one-acre home in the upscale Pinecrest community.

Parked just past her house was the Home Depot flatbed truck, waiting in the middle of the road.

As soon as Tatiana Pino turned her dark blue Land Rover Defender into her long asphalt driveway, the flatbed truck jerked into reverse and slammed into the passenger side of her SUV, according to footage of the Aug. 30, 2023, hit-and-run obtained by the Herald. In a flash, the driver of the truck sped off down the street.

The video captured by her home security camera shows that Tatiana Pino exited her SUV and took a brief look around — then, she got back into her vehicle, put it in reverse and pursued the flatbed truck. A U.S. postal carrier who happened to be sitting in his truck across the street witnessed the entire ordeal.

The video, spanning two minutes and 11 seconds, shows how the scene unfolded outside of Tatiana Pino’s home that August day. After the Home Depot truck took off down the street, with Tatiana Pino in pursuit, the footage shows that the mail carrier did a U-turn and started to follow Pino’s vehicle, stopping briefly after Pino’s distraught daughter rushed outside and flagged him down.

In a December 2023 deposition taken in her divorce case, Tatiana Pino said she called the Pinecrest police about the hit-and-run. She said she could not make out the rear license plate on the rented Home Depot flatbed truck because “it was covered.”

Soon after the incident, the FBI jumped into the investigation, which escalated with a raid on Sergio Pino’s Cocoplum waterfront home and Coral Gables office on June 24.

FBI agents are investigating whether Sergio Pino hired his part-time employee, Bayron Bennett, to recruit a crew of men to threaten his wife’s life in the wake of her filing for divorce in April 2022, people familiar with the FBI probe told the Herald. Although the FBI affidavit doesn’t identify Sergio Pino or his wife by name, Bennett is described as “hired help” who put together food and beverage services for the home builder for excursions on his yacht.

Bennett and three other Miami-Dade men — Michael Dulfo, Edner Etienne and Jerren Howard — have been charged with stalking Tatiana Pino in connection with the hit-and-run at her home.

“It was apparent that this was an intentional act and not an accidental collision,” an FBI affidavit says. Court records show Bennett told investigators that he was asked to recruit individuals to commit crimes against Tatiana Pino, though the documents do not state if Bennett gave the name of the person who had recruited him.

READ THE DOCUMENTS: FBI affidavits detail alleged threats against developer’s wife

Bennett, Dulfo and Howard are also charged with a racketeering-related offense and arson for targeting three vehicles belonging to Tatiana Pino’s sister, according to an indictment filed in March. With “the intent to kill, injure and intimidate,” the four men conspired “to engage in a course of conduct that placed” Tatiana Pino, along with her sister, “in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury,” an indictment states. The men are accused of carrying out the conspiracy between June 2022 and March 2024.

According to the FBI affidavit, Etienne was the driver of the rented Home Depot flatbed truck that struck Tatiana Pino’s Land Rover Defender, and Dulfo followed her car to the Pinecrest home in a dark-colored 2019 Chevrolet Silverado pickup that same day. The pair allegedly coordinated the rental of the flatbed truck at the Home Depot in Coconut Grove.

Etienne’s defense attorney, Robyn Blake, said her client doesn’t know Sergio Pino. “He never met this guy and never heard his name until this story came out” in the Herald in late June, she said, declining further comment.

Dulfo’s lawyer, Paul Donnelly, declined to comment on the allegations. The other defendants’ lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

The four defendants have pleaded not guilty and are facing trial in Miami federal court in late August.

Tatiana Pino’s lawyer, Raymond Rafool, said the flatbed truck assault occurred after she was returning home from a court hearing challenging her “alleged prenuptial agreement” with Sergio Pino. The couple has been fighting over the legitimacy of the agreement and whether it was signed before or after they were legally married in 1992.

“This was terrorism to clearly harm my client and strike fear in her to conclude her divorce proceedings and end her rightful prosecution of her rights in the divorce,” Rafool told the Herald on Monday.

READ MORE: FBI investigating developer Sergio Pino’s possible link to threats against wife’s life

In a November 2023 deposition taken in the divorce case, Sergio Pino denied knowing anything about the flatbed-truck attack on his wife’s car.

“Did you have anything to do with that?” Rafool asked him.

“No, of course not. No, I don’t do those things,” Sergio Pino said under oath.

In a prior interview, Sergio Pino’s defense attorney, Sam Rabin, said they’re aware of the prosecutions of the four men and the ongoing investigation by the FBI.

“We are cooperating fully with the authorities,” said Rabin, who declined to comment about the security video.

Miami Herald staff writer Tess Riski contributed to this story.