MIAMI — The final two defendants accused of participating in South Florida developer Sergio Pino’s plot to kill his estranged wife have pleaded guilty in Miami federal court, bringing the number of men who have admitted guilt in the case to nine.

Clementa Johnson, of Tallahassee, pleaded guilty Monday to murder-for-hire conspiracy, murder for hire, stalking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Diori Barnard, of Miami, also pleaded guilty to charges including murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder for hire, his attorney, Danise Ponton, confirmed.

The pleas remove the need for a trial of the last two defendants in a case that exposed a campaign of surveillance and violence against Tatiana Pino during her contentious divorce from the prominent homebuilder. Prosecutors accused Sergio Pino of using intermediaries to assemble two crews to intimidate, attack and ultimately attempt to kill his wife.

Pino, the former head of Century Homebuilders Group, died by suicide on July 16, 2024, at his waterfront Cocoplum residence in Coral Gables as FBI agents moved to arrest him. His death prevented prosecutors from bringing him to trial, but the criminal case continued against the men accused of carrying out the campaign.

Johnson and Barnard had been scheduled to face a jury beginning Oct. 5 before Senior U.S. District Judge Donald L. Graham. Seven other defendants had already pleaded guilty.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie D. Waxman confirmed that Johnson entered his guilty plea Monday in open court. The prosecutors’ office subsequently specified that he pleaded guilty to four counts, that no plea agreement was filed and that a factual proffer describing the basis for the plea was read into the record.

Johnson, represented by attorney Gennaro Cariglio Jr., is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 21. According to the prosecutors’ office, the maximum penalty for each of the conspiracy and murder-for-hire counts is life in prison. The stalking count carries a maximum of 10 years, and the firearm-possession count carries a maximum of 20 years. Those are the statutory maximums, rather than a determination of the sentence he will receive.

Barnard’s sentencing date was not immediately available.

Two crews and a campaign of violence

A superseding indictment, returned in July 2024, charged nine men with 17 counts. It described two groups operating through people who had worked for Pino, with the attacks unfolding against the backdrop of the couple’s divorce.

Tatiana Pino filed for divorce in 2022, beginning a dispute over substantial personal and business assets. Investigators viewed that financial conflict as a motive for the campaign against her, according to court filings and earlier reporting.

The first crew operated through Bayron Bennett, a handyman who provided services for Pino’s yacht excursions. That group included Jerren Keith Howard, Michael Jose Dulfo and Edner Etienne.

Prosecutors said members of the group set vehicles on fire and carried out an August 2023 attack in which a rented Home Depot flatbed truck was reversed into Tatiana’s Land Rover Defender in her driveway. The indictment’s broader conspiracy allegations also described poisoning with cyanide, arsenic and fentanyl, a staged home invasion and efforts to conceal the organizer’s involvement by arranging attacks against his own property.

Johnson and Barnard were accused of participating in the second crew. Prosecutors said that group operated through Fausto Villar, a roofer known as “Cuba” who had worked at Pino’s home.

Villar recruited Avery Bivins, whom he knew from prison, and Bivins recruited Johnson, according to prosecutors. Johnson then recruited Vernon Green, Barnard and other participants, the government said.

Prosecutors said the group followed Tatiana Pino around Miami-Dade and Monroe counties while looking for an opportunity to kill her. Members received syringes and a substance intended to make her death appear to be a heart attack or an overdose, according to the government, but eventually abandoned the injection plan.

The campaign culminated in an armed confrontation outside Tatiana’s Pinecrest home on June 23, 2024.

According to prosecutors, Green got out of a stolen Dodge Ram pickup and ran toward Tatiana Pino’s vehicle with a pistol as she returned home. She drove into her backyard while sounding the horn. Her daughter, Alessandra, came outside and encountered Green, who pointed the weapon inches from her face before returning to the pickup and fleeing.

Green, Villar and Bivins were among the defendants who pleaded guilty before Johnson and Barnard.

Investigators used surveillance footage, vehicle records, license-plate readers and cellphone data to reconstruct the alleged participants’ movements before and around the confrontation.

Court filings described a white Tesla registered to Barnard traveling near the stolen pickup before the encounter. Investigators also linked the truck, found abandoned near Tatiana’s home, to one previously recorded outside Barnard’s residence.

The government’s account connected Johnson to the pickup and a rented Mazda. License-plate records placed the Mazda immediately behind the stolen truck about 1.3 miles from Tatiana’s home two days before the confrontation. Investigators also traced vehicles to a Key Largo resort Tatiana visited the day before the encounter and documented telephone contacts involving Johnson, Barnard and Green around the attack.

Johnson’s earlier plea dispute

Johnson’s decision to plead guilty followed extensive litigation over statements he gave investigators and a proposed plea agreement he signed in 2025 but abandoned before entering a guilty plea.

After his July 1, 2024, arrest, Johnson was interviewed at the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. Prosecutors said he told investigators that he had been hired to recruit people to kill Tatiana and had been promised $250,000, with discretion to determine payments to other participants.

The government also attributed to Johnson statements that he received $12,000 in advance and participated in a video call in which Pino offered a $50,000 bonus if the killing could not be traced to him.

Cariglio sought to exclude Johnson’s statements, challenging the basis for his arrest and arguing that investigators continued questioning him after he requested an attorney. The defense also disputed whether statements made during later meetings with prosecutors were protected plea negotiations.

A separate dispute concerned the signed plea agreement and factual proffer. That proposed agreement would have required Johnson to plead guilty to conspiracy, stalking and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Johnson declined to enter that plea at a June 2025 hearing and sought replacement counsel.

The agreement contained a provision allowing prosecutors to use his statements if he withdrew. Johnson challenged whether he had knowingly agreed to that waiver, while prosecutors argued that his signature bound him to its terms.

His eventual plea, as described by the prosecutors’ office, covered a different combination of charges: conspiracy, murder for hire, stalking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

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