Andres Gonzalez, 73, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Esther Liontos, 58, and Roger Arredondo Gonzalez, 61. The victims were found on June 19 at a five-acre property in Miami-Dade County’s Redland area, a day after the killings, according to the Miami Herald’s account of the case. Gonzalez remains in custody without bond.
The alleged dispute involved the sale of a closed nursery. The arrest warrant, as reported by the Miami Herald, says Liontos and Arredondo Gonzalez bought equipment and plants from Gonzalez’s Andy’s Nursery for $14,000 in 2022. Gonzalez’s wife told investigators she believed the buyers still owed him $2,000 and had stopped paying; that account is an allegation, not a court finding.
A local industry, but an individual dispute
The nursery transaction took place in a county with a substantial ornamental-plant sector: Miami-Dade County says it ranks first in the United States in ornamental-plant production. That broader industry context helps explain the regional setting, but it does not establish why this particular business dispute arose or prove the prosecution’s account of a motive.
Investigators’ warrant account, also reported by the Miami Herald, describes vehicle-location data that placed a blue Chevrolet Equinox traveling from Gonzalez’s Florida City home to the property. His wife told investigators he drove that vehicle that day. The warrant also says the victims’ phones were missing; cell-location data linked the Equinox’s movements with Liontos’s phone. Investigators did not place Gonzalez’s own cellphone at the scene during the relevant period.
The Miami Herald reported that Gonzalez was arrested in Puerto Rico by U.S. Marshals after traveling there from Fort Lauderdale the day after the killings. The warrant says he told his wife he was going because of a family emergency. These reported investigative details have not been tested at trial, and Gonzalez has pleaded not guilty.
