Arnaldo Cintron during a bond motion hearing in Tampa, Florida (Courtesy of WFLA).
The Florida man forced to wear his girlfriend”s clothing and wig after witnessing her murder and then ordered to help clean up the scene and ditch her body revealed more horrific alleged details during a court hearing on Monday.
Elga Davis II, 29, testified during a hearing for pretrial detention for the accused murderer, 42-year-old Arnaldo Cintron.
Davis was dating 41-year-old Hiojaira Mercedes Velez-Bonilla, who lived with her cousin, 37-year-old Giselle Marie Santiago Bonilla. Cintron is Santiago Bonilla’s boyfriend.
According to Davis, Cintron and the Velez-Bonilla were yelling at each other in Spanish prior to the violent clash.
“I hear them arguing, and I hear him say, ‘don’t call me names no more,'” Davis testified in court, according to video provided by local NBC affiliate WFLA.
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That’s when Cintron allegedly took a knife to Velez-Bonilla’s throat.
“I’m sitting there, and the next thing I know I hear somebody getting hit in the throat,” Davis said, mimicking the sound his girlfriend made. “Then I tried to go run over there and then I see her on the floor.” Davis then indicated that Velez-Bonilla was writhing on the floor at this time.
Cintron repeatedly stabbed Velez-Bonilla, Davis said. After Cintron stopped the brutal attack, he turned his attention to Davis.
“Honestly, I was kind of frozen for a minute, and then it kind of clicked that I was in danger and so then I’m trying to … get distance,” Davis said. “And that’s when he comes with me a knife and he’s like, ‘hey I don’t want witnesses, feel me?'”
Davis described himself as being “terrified” as Cintron spoke about “how bad a person she is,” referring to the victim.
They then needed a place to store the victim’s body and grabbed a box in the garage, Davis said.
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“Did she fit in the box?” a prosecutor asked.
The witness paused for a beat. “Yes, but we had to make it fit.”
Davis said he was never in control of the situation.
“I just did what I was told,” he said.
The judge determined there was enough evidence to keep Cintron in jail without bond.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the investigation began shortly after 9 p.m. on Aug. 15 when Davis walked into the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office to report his girlfriend’s murder.
Insets, left to right: Arnaldo Cintron and Giselle Marie Santiago Bonilla (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Home in Riverview, Florida, where Cintron allegedly stabbed a woman to death (WTVT).
According to Davis, Velez-Bonilla lived with her two teenage sons and Santiago Bonilla, who recently moved into the home in the 11000 block of Maybrook Avenue in Riverview, near Tampa. In the early morning hours of Aug. 15, Velez-Bonilla and Cintron argued about paying bills and completing chores around the house, a motion for pretrial detention stated.
Cintron allegedly shoved Velez-Bonilla to the floor, grabbed a knife and began repeatedly stabbing her while shouting “b—, b—, b—.” Davis tried to head to the exit, but Cintron and Santiago Bonilla blocked his path, “cornering him” in the kitchen, prosecutors wrote.
The defendants then proceeded to force Davis to “help them clean it up” or he “was next,” the witness told investigators. They also took his cellphone, the motion stated. The witness and suspects allegedly spent the next two to four hours cleaning up. As they cleaned, Cintron repeatedly told Davis that he “did this for him” and Santiago Bonilla said the victim was “evil, and she deserved this for the way she treated” the witness, prosecutors wrote.
At one point, the victim’s son apparently came out of his room to ask where his mother was and inquired about the mess. According to the motion, Cintron and Santiago Bonilla told the teen that they were cleaning up a spilled drink and his mom left to go be with another man.
Next, the suspects allegedly made Davis put on one of the victim’s long dresses and don one of her wigs. They collected the cleaning supplies and the alleged murder weapon and dumped them in a trash bag, and Velez-Bonilla’s body was stuffed into a cardboard box and covered with porch screening, the motion said. The suspects allegedly placed the body and trash bag in the victim’s vehicle and forced Davis to drive to an apartment complex to meet a man he knew as “Tarzan.”
“You know one eye Willy is in the back,” Cintron allegedly told “Tarzan” once he entered the car, an apparent reference to the victim, who wore an eye patch due to a medical condition, the motion said.
Cintron, his girlfriend Santiago Bonilla, and “Tarzan” then allegedly discussed the best ways of getting rid of the victim’s body. Santiago Bonilla suggested they kick the victim’s teeth in and cut off her hands to make it harder to identify her, prosecutors wrote. Eventually, they decided to drive over the Gandy Bridge to St. Petersburg and to a secluded area in the Weedon Island Natural Preserve, the motion stated. They ended up driving back into an area of “dense mangroves” — trees native to The Sunshine State — and parked.
They then allegedly removed the cardboard box with the body and dragged it deep into the mangroves, where they dumped her remains. After driving away, the suspects realized they also left behind the trash bag with cleaning supplies and murder weapon, the motion said, so they forced Davis to go back and retrieve it. According to prosecutors, they drove away and dumped the trash bag at an apartment complex.
The defendants then allegedly ordered Davis to clean the car. Cintron also accessed the victim’s bank account, which had a balance of more than $30,000, and offered some of the money to Davis, prosecutors wrote.
After the interview, Davis showed investigators where he dumped his girlfriend’s body.
Cintron stands accused of second-degree murder, unlawfully moving a dead body, tampering with evidence and tampering with a witness. Santiago Bonilla is facing charges of unlawfully moving a dead body, tampering with evidence, accessory after the fact and tampering with a witness. She has a $200,000 bond. They are scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
“This was a brutal act of violence followed by a callous attempt to cover it up,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “No life should ever be taken in such a senseless manner, and no attempt to conceal a crime will shield those responsible from justice. Our detectives were relentless, ensuring both individuals were held accountable, and they will now face the full weight of the law.”
