Man accused of killing Miramar roommate, leaving body in closet sentenced to life

Jose Mondelus was found dead in a closet in Miramar on New Year’s Day 2021 after family worried that he had missed several performances with their church and requested a welfare check, according to police.

Now, a jury has found 27-year-old Marvin Jean Pierre guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to mandatory life in prison Sept. 29.

He claimed self-defense in the 2021 case , saying 52-year-old Mondelus, of Pembroke Pines, was going to sexually assault him while Jean Pierre was staying at the man’s apartment, Broward court documents show.

Ultimately, the jury opted to convict him.

“Of course I have to respect the jury’s verdict, but I disagree with it,” Jean Pierre’s defense attorney, Gabe Ermine, told the Miramar News. “And we will be filing an appeal.”

Officers with the Miramar Police Department met Mondelus’ sister outside his apartment Jan. 1, 2021, when she called in a welfare check on her brother, according to an arrest affidavit.

She told police she hadn’t been able to get in touch with her brother, known as a musical maestro in the South Florida Haitian church community, officers said.

She told them he had missed a series of church music performances, including one on New Year’s Eve , according to investigators.

Mondelus’ Toyota Camry was sitting in the parking lot with all the windows open, and officers said they could see in plain sight several debit cards on the center console and a Burger King bag, police said.

They asked the sister to open the car and found receipts dated from the day before, but the name on the credit card used to make the transactions was Jean Pierre’s, according to officers.

The sister opened the trunk and also found a pillow, blanket and suitcase that she said didn’t belong to her brother, police said.

Officers knocked on Mondelus’ door but said no one answered. As one officer began heading to Jean Pierre’s address on record, someone got in Mondelus’ car and started driving away, according to investigators.

Police followed and pulled over the driver , learning the person behind the wheel was the then-22-year-old Jean Pierre, the affidavit says.

Jean Pierre told police the car belonged to Mondelus and he had taken it without permission, saying he hadn’t heard from Mondelus in roughly a week, according to police.

In court documents filed by Jean Pierre’s defense attorney, including a partial transcript of his police interview, he told a detective Mondelus let him stay at his apartment when Jean Pierre was having issues with his family.

He said Mondelus took the couch and gave him the bedroom without charging him rent or asking for anything in return, according to documents.

Officers headed back to Mondelus’ apartment, and his sister unlocked the unit, police said. They went to the bedroom and tried to open the closet door, but they struggled to open it as if something were blocking it, according to officers.

When they managed to open the door, they found a body covered by a blanket, with the ankles sticking out and bound with a neck tie, police said.

Officers wrote they left the body until the medical examiner could arrive. According to a grand jury indictment, Mondelus was strangled and suffocated with a pillow case.

During his interview at the police station, Jean Pierre told investigators he was sleeping naked in Mondelus’ bedroom in the early morning of Dec. 30, 2020, when he woke up to Mondelus standing over him and touching his chest, police wrote in the affidavit.

He said he yelled at Mondelus, got dressed and grabbed a clothing iron that he then used to hit Mondelus, according to police.

Jean Pierre told detectives he acted to protect himself that night from sexual assault, invoking stand your ground laws, his defense attorney argued.

He recounted after hitting Mondelus, he wrapped the man in a carpet and bound him with neck ties, then he threw the iron in the trash and took a shower, according to the affidavit.

He said he moved Mondelus to the closet because of the smell and retreated to sleeping in the man’s car, police said.

Jean Pierre was initially charged with second-degree murder but was prosecuted on the first-degree indictment charge.

Mondelus, originally from Cap-Haitien, Haiti, was remembered as a “smiling, caring soul who always made time to help others through his ministry and his leadership,” according to his obituary.

“Jose worked as a Surgical Tech for several hospitals in South Florida. He enjoyed life, music, family and friends,” loved ones wrote. “He was also actively involved in many different churches as a choir director, musician and a leader in the Haitian Community.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 1:10 PM.