Trial begins for man accused in Miami Beach woman’s 1990 murder – NBC 6 South Florida

More than three decades after a woman was brutally murdered in a Miami Beach apartment, her friend who survived the ordeal took the stand Monday at the trial of the man accused in the killing.

The 61-year-old woman took the stand to retell the story of when a man went into her apartment on Pine Tree Drive on September 21, 1990 to rape her and kill her lifelong friend, Mercedes Perez.

Perez, 34, was fatally shot in the face during the encounter.

“He turned me around. My back towards him. Put his left hand on my mouth and with his right hand put the handgun to my head,” said Perez’s roommate, who NBC6 is not identifying because she’s a victim of sexual assault.

In 2017, police made a major break in this case that had gone cold, and arrested Dale Ewers for murder, kidnapping, robbery, and sexual battery charges.

The surviving victim said the man who went into their apartment with a gun and later raped her multiple times was Ewers.

“He finished. He told me to urinate. He took a towel that was in the bathroom and told me to clean myself off,” said the survivor.

Police said that towel was examined and the DNA found linked with Ewers.

Ewers, now 60, was arrested in Jamaica by island authorities. He had been deported to Jamaica several years before after serving time in Massachusetts following a 2008 arrest. 

During his first day of trial, jurors saw the picture of a bloody mattress and a video reenactment police filmed with the surviving victim the day after the murder.

Ewers has pleaded not guilty and his attorneys are hoping jurors have doubts in how Ewers was identified and can avoid a guilty verdict.

The trial continues Tuesday.