Florida Fetish Club Owner Found Guilty Of Strangling Ex-Roommate After She Moved Out

The owner of a fetish club in Miami, Florida, was found guilty on Wednesday of murdering his former roommate last year and dumping her body on the street.

Prosecutors accused 52-year-old Luis Moya of murdering 21-year-old Ana Rosa Moreno, his former roommate whom he met on Craiglist, in December, the Miami Herald reports. A jury reached the decision to convict Moya after one hour of deliberation.

Moya formerly owned the Hammer & Nails fetish club in Wynwood, a dungeon that doubled as a photo studio and club, and which housed fetish equipment like cages, a coffin and devices used for delivering electric shocks, according to a feature in the Miami New Times. However, the jury were reportedly not told about Moya’s fetish-related activities during the trial.

Moya and Moreno, an employee at a car dealership, lived together at his home in Kendall, the Miami Herald reports. Moya is alleged to have initially lied to Moreno by claiming to be a 37-year-old businessman from Brazil, prosecutors said. After she moved out of his home, Moya allegedly grew angry enough to kill her.

Authorities found Moreno's body abandoned in the early-morning hours on Dec.15, the outlet reports. She was left on the road, and while authorities initially suspected that her cause of death was an overdose, a postmortem examination revealed that she died via strangulation, which eventually led investigators to Moya.

Moya reportedly admitted to detectives that Moreno visited his home the night she is believed to have died, but claimed that she demanded he give her money. Moya told detectives that he then gave her a ride to The Roads, a neighborhood in Miami, where, he said, she got into someone else’s car and was driven away. Investigators then reportedly showed Moya surveillance footage of him getting rid of Moreno’s body before driving away in her car, a Honda Accord. Moreno allegedly told police that the car captured on the footage was not the one he was driving that night.

Moya was convicted after prosecutors showed the aforementioned surveillance footage to the jury, according to the Herald. Other evidence presented during the trial included text message arguments between the two, toll records and Moya’s internet searches that were related to disabling the GPS system in Moreno’s car.

Moya is scheduled to stand before a judge again on July 19 for sentencing; he could face life in prison, the Herald reports.

A former resident of Manchester, England, who moved to South Florida in 2014, Moya told the Miami New Times in 2016 that he was known at his dungeon as the “dungeon master” or “pro-dom.” He denied that his establishment was a “f--k club,” and instead touted the importance of safe sexual exploration.

“Come and experience what it is to be yourself — no hangups, with no one telling you, ‘That’s disgusting, nasty, you’re a f---ing pervert, and I can’t believe you like that,’” he said. “Come and experience what it’s like to be free and open.”