Stefano Cremasco-Cicero has been denied bond after allegedly stabbing his mother to death inside his luxury Miami apartment.
Cremasco-Cicero, 36, appeared before a Miami-Dade County judge Saturday morning wearing a green anti-suicide smock following his arrest on second-degree murder charges, according to Local10 News. The US operating manager of the high-end 1986 Steak House in Miami is being held at Turner Guildford Knight Correctional Center on an immigration hold, as he was in the US on an investor visa.
Police responded to the apartment building in the city’s Brickell neighborhood shortly before 5 a.m. Friday for what was described as an “unknown request.” Officers found the restaurant manager drenched in blood on his clothing, hands and shoes, according to his arrest affidavit. He reportedly told officers, “I was defending myself,” before leading them to his apartment on the 47th floor.
Inside the unit, cops found his mother lying on her side, covered in stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Police later found several bloodied kitchen knives, a shattered glass, a broken wine bottle and two white shirts covered in blood after a search warrant was issued.
The mother and son had returned to the high-rise apartment the night before around 10:30 p.m., according to surveillance footage and building key-fob logs. What happened inside during the next several hours remains unclear, but the violence that unfolded left the apartment scattered with broken glass and bloodied weapons.
The morning’s events were captured on the building’s surveillance system. Cremasco-Cicero was seen entering an elevator around 4:25 a.m. Wielding a knife and covered in blood, wearing a white T-shirt, khaki pants and white shoes. The footage showed he dropped the knife after he exited the elevator, then picked up the weapon and got into another elevator to return upstairs.
He was later seen returning to the elevator wearing a different long-sleeved blue shirt and exited the building while using his phone. Just before 4:40 a.m., he returned to the building lobby and sat down on a couch wearing the same bloodied white shoes.
He then opened the lobby door for a food delivery driver and asked her to call 911, the courier told police. He called police himself and handed the phone to the delivery driver to speak with the dispatcher. While on the phone with 911, the courier noticed blood on Cremasco-Cicero, who refused to take back the phone when she tried to hand it back.
Cremasco-Cicero’s wife, who was out of the country in France at the time of the killing, spoke with police by phone. She told officers her husband’s mother was staying with him while visiting from Mexico. She also said Cremasco-Cicero was not close with his mother following his parents’ divorce.
The wife told cops she didn’t believe her husband suffered from any mental illnesses but noted he had been under a lot of stress while opening a new restaurant in Coconut Grove. Cremasco-Cicero was born in Mexico but is of Argentine descent and had built a career managing the upscale steakhouse before the fatal incident.
He is slated to return to court Tuesday morning.