More than six years after a brazen ambush outside a Kendale Lakes home rattled Miami’s custom car scene, a 30-year-old man is now in the Miami-Dade County jail on state charges tied to the 2019 murder-for-hire shooting that seriously wounded celebrity car designer Alex Vega. The late-night booking marks the latest turn in a long-running federal and local probe that has been quietly grinding forward since the driveway attack.
According to an arrest warrant, surveillance video shows a masked man in gloves stepping out with a .40-caliber handgun just as Vega pulled into his driveway on Aug. 27, 2019. Investigators say Vega was shot and rushed to Kendall Regional Medical Center. Deputies later recovered shell casings, along with a discarded mask and gloves near a bus stop, and the warrant states that the suspect provided detectives with a DNA sample in June 2022. Miami-Dade corrections records identify the man as Julian Jimenez, booked shortly before 11:40 p.m. Wednesday, according to WPLG Local 10.
How prosecutors say the plot came together
Federal prosecutors have said the ambush grew out of a bitter business dispute after Rolando “Roly” Ramirez took control of Vega’s Exclusive Motoring Worldwide in a 2012 settlement. The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges Ramirez and Rasheed “Fresh” Ali recruited New York men Jaime Serrano and Julian Jimenez to travel to Miami and carry out the shooting, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. That release outlines how investigators tied travel records, payments and communications to the alleged hit.
Federal prosecutions so far
The federal case has already spun off guilty pleas, trial testimony and lengthy prison terms. Jimenez pleaded guilty and Serrano was convicted in earlier federal proceedings and received roughly 35- and 50-year sentences, respectively, while Ramirez and Ali were later convicted and handed multidecade terms. The Miami Herald has detailed the federal trials, verdicts and sentencing.
What the county booking could mean
County booking records now list state charges that include attempted murder with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder with a deadly weapon, along with a hold for another agency. Those notations could indicate outstanding local warrants or separate state-level counts that prosecutors may decide to pursue on top of the federal convictions, according to WPLG Local 10.
Legal notes
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has described the case as the product of a lengthy federal investigation that included an August 2024 FBI raid at a Doral auto shop. Prosecutors continue to stress that the criminal charges are allegations and that all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until guilt is proven in court, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release lays out the alleged evidence and timeline. Local background reporting on the raid is archived in coverage of the FBI raid of a Doral auto shop, and the federal press statement is on the U.S. Attorney’s website.
Vega, a car customizer for athletes and entertainers who has appeared on a reality series, survived the 2019 attack but has told the courts he continues to live with physical and emotional scars. Upcoming court filings and hearings will determine whether Miami-Dade prosecutors press additional state charges or coordinate more closely with federal authorities on the next steps, and public records are expected to clarify the county case as it moves ahead. The Miami Herald has profiled Vega and followed the federal proceedings extensively.
