Motel Shooting Suspect Charged in Hialeah‑Area Murder

Miami police said on May 15 that Jean Felix Fuentes-Gonzalez, 39, had been charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 2, 2024 killing of Rudy Quesada at a motel on West Flagler Street. The new charge links a homicide in Miami to an earlier shooting in Hialeah in which Quesada survived multiple gunshot wounds, according to an arrest report obtained by local media. Authorities said investigators connected the two cases through ballistic evidence, DNA testing and details gathered from prior arrests. Fuentes-Gonzalez was already being held without bond after his March arrest in the 2023 shooting, records and police statements said. ### How did investigators connect the 2023 Hialeah shooting and the 2024 Miami killing? The Aug. 10, 2023 shooting happened at the Hialeah Airport Motel at 131 W. Fifth St., where officers found Quesada inside Room 209 with multiple gunshot wounds, according to the arrest warrant. Quesada was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, underwent surgery and survived, the warrant said. (local10.com) Miami police said Quesada was then shot to death months later, at about 12:45 a.m. on Feb. 2, 2024, outside Room 18 of the Ernesto Motel at 4001 W. Flagler St. Officers found him unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds, and Miami Fire Rescue pronounced him dead at 12:59 a.m., according to the report. (local10.com) Investigators said the link between the two shootings emerged from forensic work and later arrests. A firearm recovered during a June 24, 2025 traffic stop matched shell casings from the Miami murder scene, and authorities also said that same gun matched evidence from the 2023 Hialeah shooting. DNA taken from the weapon matched Fuentes-Gonzalez, and blood found on a shoe in his backpack matched Quesada, according to the report cited by NBC Miami. (local10.com) ### What do police say happened in the first shooting? Surveillance video from the Hialeah motel showed a gunman wearing a green skully cap, sunglasses, gloves and two-toned shoes, investigators said. Police said the shooter arrived and fled in a stolen vehicle. Quesada told detectives that the assailant demanded money and shot him several times during a struggle, according to the warrant. (local10.com) Investigators said Quesada pulled the skully cap off the shooter during that fight, and detectives recovered the cap and hair strands from the scene. About three weeks after the Hialeah shooting, Miami police arrested Fuentes-Gonzalez in a vehicle-theft case, and detectives later noted that he was wearing a long black wig and a hoodie they said resembled items seen on the Hialeah gunman, the warrant said. (local10.com) ### What role did Katherine Lopez play in the investigation? (local10.com) Katherine Lopez was inside the Miami motel room when officers knocked after the Feb. 2, 2024 shooting, according to police. Investigators said she initially told detectives she had been sleeping and was unaware of the shooting. Hours later, police said, she told them she had been in a relationship with Quesada and was living with him at the motel. (local10.com) Detectives later learned that Lopez and Fuentes-Gonzalez had been in a relationship for more than five years and were living together in southwest Miami-Dade, according to the report. Police said the pair also had a reported history of domestic violence. Local 10 reported that investigators concluded Lopez had been in a romantic relationship with Fuentes-Gonzalez before, during and after both shootings. (local10.com) ### What happened during the 2025 traffic stop? Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies stopped Fuentes-Gonzalez’s Toyota Tacoma at a U Gas station in Miami on June 24, 2025, according to investigators. Fuentes-Gonzalez, Lopez and another person were in the vehicle and were arrested on narcotics charges, the reports said. Deputies found a gun in a brown backpack in the back seat, authorities said. (local10.com) That firearm became central to the homicide case. Investigators said ballistics testing tied it to shell casings from the Ernesto Motel killing, and later DNA testing tied Fuentes-Gonzalez to the weapon. ### What happens next in the case? Fuentes-Gonzalez was arrested at the jail on the murder charge this week, records cited by NBC Miami showed. (local10.com) He remains held without bond. Miami Police spokesperson Kiara Delva said on May 15 that the case showed “the work that our detectives put in day-in and day-out to solve cases.” Delva said detectives “do not stop working cases” as they seek to identify suspects and provide closure to victims’ families. (local10.com) Any next court appearance would proceed through Miami-Dade’s criminal court system, where Fuentes-Gonzalez is already in custody on the earlier case. (nbcmiami.com)