Mom of teen convicted in deadly stabbing is accused of trying to hire hit man

A woman was arrested after trying to hire a hit man to kill two witnesses who testified against her teenage son, who was convicted in the stabbing death of a man during a 5-year-old’s birthday party, Palm Beach County deputies said Tuesday.

Josefina Cardona-Cardona, 43, blamed the witnesses for her son’s imprisonment and is accused of trying to hire a man to kill them, according to her arrest report. What she did not know, the report says, was that the man she thought was a killer-for-hire was an undercover agent.

Her son, 16-year-old Manuel Marcos Cardona from Lake Worth, pleaded guilty in February to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the 2022 killing, court records show. Palm Beach deputies say Manuel, then 14, stabbed 19-year-old Andres Perez-Alvarado during a brawl at the birthday party. He died the next day at the hospital.

Informant tips off detectives

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detectives first heard about the woman’s alleged plot through an informant on April 17 of this year, according to her arrest report.

The informant told detectives that a woman, whom he knew as “Maria,” was inquiring about finding someone to kill the people she blamed for her son’s imprisonment. The informant gave detectives the woman’s photo and phone number, which they later determined belonged to Cardona-Cardona.

On April 18, following the detectives’ instructions, the informant called Cardona-Cardona and she agreed to meet with the informant and the undercover agent she thought was a hit man. Later that day, they met near a high school in Lake Worth Beach.

Cardona-Cardona, detectives say, identified the people she wanted killed as “Catalina” and “Alonso,” and showed photos of them to the undercover agent. Further investigation revealed their names: Catarina Jimenez and Alonzo Perez-Ramirez, the two witnesses.

Detectives say Cardona-Cardona was captured on video agreeing to pay $8,000 for the murders, telling the undercover agent she would call her family members in Guatemala to send her money for the hits.

On April 23, five days after they first met, Cardona-Cardona showed the agent where the two witnesses lived and the places they frequented. Outside Jimenez’s apartment, detectives say Cardona-Cardona agreed to pay half of the money upfront.

Two weeks later, Cardona-Cardona met with the undercover agent and told him she would have $2,000 next week to pay for the killings. When the agent asked for collateral, she gave him a $100 gold chain, her arrest report says.

Cardona-Cardona was arrested Monday, two blocks from her Lake Worth Beach home. She is charged with two counts of solicitation to commit murder and is being held at the county’s Main Detention Center. Her first court appearance was Tuesday, when a judge set her bail at $550,000 and ordered her to stay away from the witnesses.

Deadly stabbing at birthday party

Around 10:30 p.m. on June 18, 2022, Palm Beach County deputies rushed to a house at an undisclosed location where a man had been stabbed.

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The man was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach, where he died the next day.

Jimenez told detectives she was hosting a party for her 5-year-old when a man later identified as Gonzalo Cardona hit a woman with a bottle over a “romantic relationship” she was involved in.

After the woman was struck, witnesses say Gonzalo Cardona and another man started throwing punches. When Perez-Alvarado tried to separate them, Gonzalo Cardona punched him in the face.

Witnesses told detectives Manuel then stabbed Perez-Alvarado with a knife. Five people, including Manuel, his parents, Gonzalo Cardona and his wife, kicked Perez-Alvarado while he was on the ground, witnesses said. A witness told investigators she saw Manuel run away with his parents.

On June 21, 2022, three days after the party, Perez-Alvarado’s family called deputies to report they had spotted Manuel and his mother and they were following them on Interstate 95. A Brevard County Sheriff’s Office deputy stopped them sometime later.

Manuel was arrested the following month in North Carolina, extradited to Florida and charged with second-degree murder. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years behind bars, with 561 days credited as time served. The 16-year-old remains at the Suwannee Correctional Institution Annex, northwest of Gainesville, state prison records show.

Both Manuel and his mom, Josefina Cardona-Cardona, could be deported, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said. Cardona-Cardona was born in Guatemala.

©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.