‘Pain & Gain’ killers spared from death by Miami juries. They’ll still spend life in prison
Nearly three decades after two men were sentenced to die for one of the most bizarre and brutal murder plots in South Florida history, they got a reprieve - but will still have to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Former Sun Gym Gang members Daniel Lugo, 61 and Noel Doorbal, 52 were both freed from death row Friday, for the 1995 murders and dismemberment of a wealthy Golden Beach couple and the torture and extortion of another man six months earlier. The decisions were reached by twin juries charged with deciding the fate of each man separately.
The verdicts marked the end of a lengthy re-sentencing trial forced last year by a change to the state’s death penalty law. The two juries seated simultaneously — a rare but not unheard of procedure — heard three weeks of often gruesome testimony, some delivered by fellow gym rats and body builders who took part in the crimes but received lesser sentences.
The sordid, brutal cases involving body builders, steroids and porn spurred a series of lengthy pieces written by former Miami New Times reporter Pete Collins that was later turned into the 2013 movie “Pain & Gain,” starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa TInkler Mendez read the verdicts to one jury at a time, as the other waited outside the courtroom. In both cases the defendants and their counsel remained mostly stoic. There wasn’t much emotion in a partially-filled courtroom for a re-sentencing of already convicted men who have spent almost 30 years behind bars.
Doorbal didn’t flinch. Lugo, in gray slacks and blue jacket, closed his eyes and clenched his fists before hugging his attorneys.
“You will spend the rest of your natural life in prison,” the judge told Lugo, before he was escorted from the courtroom.
A death sentence would have required a vote by eight of the 12 jurors in each case for the death of at least one of the two victims. Neither jury met that standard, though the final tally was not revealed.
Outside the courtroom and after the verdict Doorbal’s defense attorney Bruce Fleisher called it a relief and said his client thanked him repeatedly and told him he loved him.
“He thinks he can do good for the rest of his life,” Fleisher said. “He accepted responsibility. He’s remorseful and he’s going to do good things in prison to help others.”
During closing arguments earlier in the week, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Kioceaia Stenson, told jurors how Doorbal was addicted to a lifestyle of nice cars and Rolex watches and how the murders were the consequence of trying to maintain that lifestyle at any cost.
While Fleisher portrayed his client as having a terribly abusive childhood. He said Doorbal later become addicted to body building and steroids, which eventually took control of his emotions - something, Fleisher said, Lugo took full advantage of.
“He’s not an organizer. He’s not a planner. He was the muscle,” Fleischer told jurors.
Defense attorney Alex Sola said though accused ringleader Lugo committed the crimes, he’d also been a model prisoner the past three decades. The attorney called a death penalty sentence neither “appropriate,” “fair,” or “just.”
In response, senior state trial counselor Scott Warfman told jurors Lugo’s good behavior behind bars had nothing to do with the heinous crimes he committed during the failed extortion plots.
“Maybe he has changed,” said Warfman. “But Mr. Lugo is responsible for all he’s done. A death sentence is appropriate under the circumstances.”
The three week re-sentencing for the sensational trial was forced after Florida lawmakers became so incensed at a life sentence handed down to convicted Parkland high school mass shooter Nikolas Cruz, that they loosened the death penalty requirement. Florida law now requires a super-majority, or eight of 12 jurors to vote for death, instead of unanimity.
It began with kidnapping, torture
Lugo and Doorbal’s criminal enterprise began with the kidnapping and torture of businessman Marcelo Schiller in 1994 and ended six months later with the murders of the Golden Beach couple who made a comfortable living in the phone sex business.
Schiller — who would later be convicted of Medicare fraud — was abducted and forced into a van by Lugo and Doorbal as he headed out the back door of his Hialeah delicatessen to his car one afternoon. The men, wearing masks, stung him with an electronic Taser and beat him before taking him to a warehouse in the Hialeah area.
They kept Schiller, 67, handcuffed and blindfolded for a month. He was barely fed, not permitted to use the bathroom, tied to a wall and force-fed booze. After they stole more than a million dollars from private accounts, they tried kill Schiller by tying him to the steering wheel of a car as it careened into a concrete pillar.
After he survived and tried to escape, they set the vehicle ablaze, then ran over Schiller. Somehow, he survived. At trial it came out that Doorbal and Lugo had initially planned to wear Ninja Warrior outfits on Halloween and abduct Schiller from his home. But that plan was scuttled.
While recovering in a hospital, he was flown to New York for his own safety. When Schiller first went to police, they brushed aside his claims. A private investigator later convinced police of the crimes and eventually Lugo, Doorbal and some associates were arrested.
They were also found guilty of murdering a wealthy Golden Beach couple who made a small fortune in the 900 phone sex business. Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton were murdered in 1995 during an extortion plan engineered by Lugo and Doorbal that went terribly wrong.
Doorbal, who had invited Griga to his home to discuss a business venture, but for some reason ended up killing Griga. When his girlfriend Krisztina Furton discovered the body, Doorbal carried her downstairs and she was injected with enough horse tranquilizer to kill her.
The men then then transported the dead couple to a warehouse where the bodies were dismembered, some parts burned. Their torsos were later discovered in oil drums dumped in a canal. Their heads, hands and feet were put in buckets and scattered throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Doorbal was found guilty of a slew of crimes, including two counts of first-degree murder, racketeering, two counts of kidnapping, attempted extortion and attempted first-degree murder. Lugo was convicted of similar charges. Both men were sentenced to death for each murder.
The strange case has also led to a highly unusual courtroom setting. Lugo and Doorbal’s re-sentencing trials were in the same courtroom at the same time with separate juries. So when jurors delivered a verdict Thursday afternoon on Lugo, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler-Mendez kept it sealed until jurors decided the fate of Doorbal the next day.
This story was originally published December 20, 2024 at 4:31 PM.
