By Luis De Jesus
06 Aug 2024, 22:38 PM EDT
A Wisconsin man motivated by his desire to finance a trip to “fight” the Maduro government in Venezuela has been sentenced to double life in prison for the 2018 shooting deaths of a couple he robbed in Estero, Florida, the state’s Middle District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.
Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, 27, received two consecutive life sentences in federal prison for his role in “conspiracy to commit robbery and use of a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death,” among other charges.
Last March, a jury found Zwiefelhofer guilty, who had served in Ukraine in 2017 with the aim of raising funds to “fight” against the government of Nicolás Maduro, Efe reports.
According to testimony presented at trial, on April 10, 2018, two people were found dead in Estero, with gunshot wounds to the body and head.
The victims, who have not been publicly identified, had traveled from Brooksville to the town on Florida’s west coast to buy guns through a website.
The investigation revealed that Zwiefelhofer was identified as one of those responsible for the murder during an armed robbery in which they seized $3,000 dollars that the couple planned to use to buy weapons.
The defendant, who had deserted from the U.S. Army before fighting in Ukraine in 2017, had conceived a plan to obtain funds to fight the Venezuelan government and decided to commit the crimes to finance his trip.
Craig Lang, the other defendant in this case, is still awaiting trial.
“Zwiefelhofer deserves to be incarcerated for life, and this sentence ensures that will be the case. We are committed to protecting our communities from these threats,” said Matthew Fodor, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Tampa Division.
U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg praised the cooperation with law enforcement and said everything possible was done in the federal investigation and prosecution of this case.
“This individual committed horrific acts and justice was served today,” Handberg concluded.
Keep reading:
• Ex-soldier extradited to the US was going to use victims’ money to fight Maduro in Venezuela
• Former soldier accused of double murder in Florida extradited from Ukraine to the United States
• Maduro says Netanyahu is “overriding the International Court of Justice” and “bombing children”