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Baldomero Fernandez 1924 - 2008

Baldomero Fernandez of Miami, Miami-Dade County, FL was born on October 10, 1924 in Los Alfonsos, Puerto Padre County Cuba, and died at age 83 years old on March 7, 2008 in Miami, Miami-Dade County.

Baldomero Fernandez

Baldomero Manuel Fernandez

Miami, Miami-Dade County, FL 33157

October 10, 1924

Los Alfonsos, Puerto Padre County, Cuba

March 7, 2008

Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States

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Baldomero Fernandez Baldomero Fernandez (1924 - 2008)

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Baldomero Fernandez's History: 1924 - 2008

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Introduction

Featured on the ID channel's "And Justice for All", Baldomero Fernandez was convicted of killing his neighbor. See Murderer for more details. The incident was also featured on "Fear Thy Neighbor". See Home's Where the Hearse Is, James Escoto and Baldomero Fernandez. Baldomero Fernandez's parents were Baldomero Fernandez Suarez (born in Spain in 1897 and died in Cuba) and Isabel Arenas Albanes, (1896-1983) born in Cuba died in Miami FL. Baldomero married Maria Ramon (a citizen of the US) on June 30 1956 in Miami FL. Having lived continuously in the US since May, 1948, he applied for naturalization. On his naturalization application, he stated that he was of medium complexion, was 5 ft 8 in tall, and had brown eyes and black hair. He later married Lourdes and they divorced in July, 1991, in Miami-Dade, Florida. See what seems to be a balanced article about Baldomero, his plea bargain, his background and about the neighbor that he killed, James Escoto, at Baldomero Fernandez Trial. See a photo of James Escoto at Baldomero Fernandez - Jimmy Escoto. Another article about the murder is available here In Miami, Criminals Become the Victims as Citizens Fight Back
10/10

1924

Birthday

October 10, 1924

Birthdate

Los Alfonsos, Puerto Padre County Cuba

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Baldomero Fernandez was of Cuban descent.
Nationality & Locations

Baldomero was born in Los Alfonsos Puerto Padre County in Cuba. He spent most of his life in the United States and died in Miami Florida.
Religious Beliefs

Baldomero volunteered at the carnival at St. Dominic's Catholic Church.
Professional Career

Baldomero was a bell hop when he was naturalized and he was a volunteer worker at an elementary school before he retired.
Personal Life & Family

Baldomero Fernandez was married twice and had three children from his first marriage. A newspaper article mentioned that he loved his family, his church, and his privacy. He volunteered time to the PTA, the Boy Scouts, and the carnival at S. Dominic's Catholic Church.
03/7

2008

Death

March 7, 2008

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida United States
Death location

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Baldomero Fernandez lived 11 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 83.

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13 Memories, Stories & Photos about Baldomero

Doreda Dav

12 favorites

06/25/2021

He murdered a man in cold blood !

Comments

Cherie Vance

18 favorites

04/24/2022

He proved himself to be an ill-tempered man with a very short fuse! He was evil, no doubt, to be able to shoot a man, no marks on him from being hit with any chain, in cold blood, and then, to chase him down while continuing to shoot and finally, bludgeoning him to death!!!! That is SO FAR from the meaning of self-defense! The fact that he only served 3 years in prison for such a brutal MURDER makes me glad that God gives out justice ultimately for those that seemingly escape it here. What a pathetic, evil man!

Comments

Kelli Shookman

18 favorites

01/25/2022

MURDERER!!!

Self defense my foot!

He chased that man down after shooting him. Mr. Escoto retreated after being shot and this evil man chased him down, shot him several more times, ran out of bullets, so he pistol whipped him and then when his wife disarmed him, he picked up a cinder block and bludgeoned him to death.

That’s NOT self defense!!! That’s MURDER! Once somebody retreats, you aren’t in immediate danger.
And you’ll NEVER convince me that he didn’t get off easy due to politics… just look at what happened with the fence. He had favor with people in high places and that let him get away with murdering a young father while he got to live into his 80s! That is disgusting!!!!!!!

If he wouldn’t have been such a jerk and expect his neighbor to follow his Catholic lifestyle and keep being up in Mr. Escoto’s face all the time, this would have never escalated to this point.
Blaming the victim for this is just c***!!! It all started with a man thinking he could control someone else.

It makes me sick listening to his daughter lie about the politics and believing her father was defending himself.

ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING!!!

Comments

Kathleen Wentworth

14 favorites

02/05/2023

Omg he so planned it he should have gotten life!!! Three and a half years is BS!! And his daughter and the neighbor are to scared to show there faces on TV!! She knows her dad was wrong and guilty!!! Self defense my butt!! He shot him chased him down shooting at him ran out of bullets pistol whipped him then grabbed a cinder block to finish job and then tries to plead temporary insanity!!! Yet no political people were involved?! Yeah right!! If there wasn't he would have gotten life not 7 years and served three and a half!!!

Favorite (3)

Kathy Pinna

32.7k+ favorites

04/04/2023

Baldomero Fernandez Trial

The following article appeared in The Miami Herald on Saturday, November 21, 1987 on page 41:
MAN GETS 7 YEARS FOR KILLING NEIGHBOR
by Christine Evans Herald Staff Writer

Priests, police and teachers begged for leniency Friday, but a Dade judge sent Baldomero Fernandez - civic leader, churchgoer and murderer - to prison anyway. Circuit Judge Ronald Friedman called the case "one of the most tragic, difficult and unusual to come before me." Then he sentenced the frail defendant to seven years in prison with no chance of release until October 1989.

"I can never be happy after this" his wife, Lourdes, said later. "All that has happened, it is too much." A first-time offender at age 63, the popular West Miami man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the death of his next-door neighbor, James Escoto. The killing put an end to their three-year feud. The heart of the dispute was a 12-foot-wide swath of land. In a courtroom packed with the victim's family and dozens of his own supporters, Fernandez confessed to the killing but not to intent. He claimed temporary insanity.

"It never crossed my mind to do that," Fernandez told the judge. "The way I feel now, it's miserable. Sometimes I wish I could be the dead person." For Fernandez, the sentence was a victory of sorts, a chance to avoid trial and, possibly, death in Florida's electric chair. (continued on page 2c)

Originally arrested for second-degree murder, a grand jury last year upped the charge to first-degree, and Fernandez was jailed. Under the terms of Friday's plea, he faced between three and nearly 12 years in prison. For Escoto's family, seven years wasn't enough. "This man took a life, an important life, my son's life," said Olga Herrera. "He should go to trial. He should pay. Seven years is nothing. For a life, it is nothing."

Prosecutor Michael Band said he agreed to the plea bargain because he wasn't sure he could win the case in trial. Fernandez, he said, is a "sympathetic" character, a good man at heart. To the judge, attorneys described the strange, sad relationship that led to Escoto's death one year ago. For three years, police had made frequent trips to the Flagami neighborhood where the two men lived side by side. Eight, 10, 15 times they were called to settle disputes. Each time they left, unable to cool the rivalry. The hatred deepened.

"The events speak of the failings and failures of people and the system," Band said. "Two neighbors torn apart . . . two neighbors who appeared almost schizophrenic in their relationship with each other. Two seemingly mature people who took what seems like sadistic pleasure in creating a hell for one another." Escoto was 30. For a job, he nursed the paralyzed son of former Miami Dolphin linebacker Nick Buoniconti. For fun he liked motorcycling, scuba diving, hunting, fishing, and pets. He kept five black baby chicks in a box, a Burmese python in a cage and a moray eels in a salt water aquarium.

Fernandez was a retired bellhop. He loved his family, his church and his privacy. He volunteered time to the PTA, the Boy Scouts, the carnival at St. Dominic's Catholic Church. At first, the disputes were small. Someone threw eggs at Fernandez' door He blamed Escoto. Escoto stayed up late, threw bottles and shot off guns for fun, Fernandez complained.

Someone slipped an obscene photo into Fernandez' mailbox. His children saw it. Again, he blamed Escoto. Then there was the land, a skinny strip that separated their homes. Fernandez thought it belonged to him. Escoto said, no, it was public property, and he parked his antique Ford truck on it.

On Oct. 4, 1986, attorneys say, Escoto drove wildly across his neighbor's lawn. The older man, in his slippers in his house, got in his own car and gave chase. Then Fernandez stopped to talk with a friend. Escoto approached on foot. He insulted Fernandez. Fernandez pulled a gun. Escoto dared him to shoot. Eventually, Fernandez did. Twice. Escoto ran to find help. A witness says Fernandez finished him off with a blow to the head. Escoto's family told the judge Friday they will never understand. "Jimmy played by the rules," said Dennis Poin, the victim's cousin. "Evidently, Mr. Fernandez could not play by the rules. He played by violence."

But the old friends of Fernandez said that the man who fired the gun was not the man they knew. Fernandez, they said, had been pushed to his limits by Escoto's antics. "I believe that everyone can have a moment in their life when their emotions overrule their better judgement," said a friend, Norma Sanchez. "I think that is what happened to Mr. Fernandez."

Date & Place: November 21, 1987 in Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida United States

Comments

Hector Aviles Mendez

9 favorites

01/28/2025

I feel sorry for whoever ended up being related to Baldomero, I would changed my last name for sure.

Favorite (1)

Gene Misty

13 favorites

04/09/2025

He was a sickening individual that became a prime example of the ways the criminal justice system mishandles prosecutions that are rightfully earned.

From the start, Jimmy was the victim of a sick, revolting man who deserves to be in the dirt where he is now.

Justice for Jimmy, and here’s to hoping that man’s family can find peace, though I wouldn’t blame them for their bitterness and disgust towards this piece of s***.

No one should have to suffer being shot to death and bludgeoned with a cinder block.

Absolute madness that anyone should mourn at all for Fernandez.

I sincerely hope, with every fiber of my being, that he burns for all of eternity in the deepest crevices of Hell. 😊

Favorite

Kathy Pinna

32.7k+ favorites

09/21/2022

Home's Where the Hearse Is, James Escoto and Baldomero Fernandez

The following appeared on the "Fear Thy Neighbor" website on March 18, 2020:

In season one of Fear Thy Neighbor, Home's Where the Hearse is the story of James Escoto and Baldomero Fernandez and their conflict in Miami Florida.

The show is described as a three-year feud over land reaches a bloody and tragic conclusion for a young mother in Miami.

Baldomero Fernandez passed away in 2008
He was charged with second-degree murder but was helped by the community who believed in him. They had had a three-year feud over a small patch of land that culminated in Escoto approaching the older man cursing. He shot him until he was out of bullets, hit him with the gun until it was taken away and then beat him with a rock. The grand jury upgarded the murder charge to first degree.

Comments

Evan White

3 favorites

07/22/2020

Murderer

Retiree Baldomero Fernandez, 62, murdered Army veteran James Escoto, 29, in Miami, Florida on October 4, 1986. Fernandez claimed self-defense but the evidence said otherwise. Fernandez shot Jimmy multiple times and then bashed his head in with a rock to kill him. Jimmy’s son believes this homicide was pre-meditated. After a plea deal, Baldomero Fernandez was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 7 years in prison but he only served 3 years.

[external link]

Comments

Marisa Rodriguez

21 favorites

10/02/2020

evil man killing his neighbor after running him down like a dog.

Comments

William Berrios

12 favorites

01/20/2023

I hope this man is rotting in Hell where he belongs!

Favorite (2)

Kathy Pinna

32.7k+ favorites

04/04/2023

Baldomero Fernandez - Jimmy Escoto

A photo of James Escoto, the man that Baldomero Fernandez was convicted of killing in 1986.

Date & Place: circa 1985 in Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida United States

Comments

Em Greer

23 favorites

07/08/2022

Crooked Miami politicians protected this murderer from the sentence he deserved. Good thing we have a just God.

Comments

Kathy Pinna

32.7k+ favorites

01/24/2022

In Miami, Criminals Become the Victims as Citizens Fight Back

BY JEFF HARDY
OCT. 26, 1986 12 AM PT

MIAMI--There is a subdued outpouring of sympathy on the streets of Miami for private citizens who have killed while defending life or property. Several men nod their heads as one says: “I would do it, too. I would kill to protect my life, my family, my possessions.”

In this city, statistically one of America’s most violent, there has been a rash of such killings in the last three months. Residents frustrated over the failure of police protection have decided to protect themselves. One of these so-called vigilantes is Baldomero Fernandez.

Fernandez, 62, complained to police and other authorities for three years that James Escoto, 31, a private-duty nurse who lived in his middle-class neighborhood, was taunting him with obscenities and harassing him by throwing rocks and bottles.

Fernandez says nothing was done about the problem.
Fernandez, a volunteer worker at an elementary school, claims that on Oct. 4, Escoto began taunting him again and hit him over the head with a bicycle chain. This time, Fernandez took up a gun, chased Escoto and, according to police, shot him until the gun was empty.

Fernandez then allegedly used the gun to beat the bleeding Escoto, and after Fernandez’s wife, Lourdes, took away the gun, he used a rock to continue the beating. Escoto died.

There was no public outrage over Escoto’s death. Far from it.

Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez came to the county jail that night to visit Fernandez and pledge him his support. Suarez has known Fernandez for at least seven years.

The next day, a Sunday, more than 200 people--including West Miami Mayor Pedro Reboredo--showed up in court to lend their support. The judge ruled that Fernandez, a PTA and Boy Scout leader, represented no danger to the community and released him without bail to the custody of his wife, Mayor Reboredo and a parish priest.

Police at first charged Fernandez with second-degree murder. A grand jury later upgraded the charge to first-degree murder, and he was jailed again.

“My client is a model citizen,” defense lawyer Jose Villalobos said. He argued that Fernandez had simply reached a breaking point.

Fernandez is one of several such “model citizens” in Dade County who have taken what they see as the law into their own hands--occasionally killing in the process.

Comments