Bradenton man was charged with punching his ex. Now he’s wanted on a murder charge

A Bradenton man facing a domestic battery charge for allegedly punching his ex-girlfriend is wanted in the shooting death of the woman’s new boyfriend in the parking lot of a strip mall late Friday night.

Police have obtained a warrant charging Miguel Angel Alvarado with second-degree murder in the death of 24-year-old Alfonso Jimenez, of Naples.

Alvarado, 37, was last seen running from the Colonades strip mall in the 2100 block of Manatee Avenue East in Bradenton. investigators do not know whether Alvarado is still in the area but are asking the public’s help in finding him, according to Bradenton police spokesman Capt. Brian Thiers.

Before the shooting, Alvarado was out on bond after he was arrested Nov. 10 on a domestic battery charge.

According to court records, Alvarado and his then-girlfriend of six years came home from drinking at a nightclub and started an argument during which he punched the woman in the ear. A judge later ordered Alvarado to stay away from her. The 34-year-old woman was also granted a temporary injunction for protection by another judge later that month.

But neither order seem to have stopped Alvarado.

On Friday, he followed his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, Jimenez, back from Naples. She had accompanied Jimenez to visit his family, his mother Rosa Jimenez told the Bradenton Herald in Spanish.

The couple for some unknown reason pulled into the strip mall when they arrived back in Bradenton where, where Alvarado and Jimenez began arguing over the woman. She is cooperating with detectives, according to Thiers.

Rosa Jimenez had feared something bad would come of her son’s relationship with the woman, who was 10 years older than him and coming out of an abusive relationship. When he announced a few days before Christmas that he was going to leave home for the first time to live with the woman in Bradenton, Rosa Jimenez worried even more.

“I am giving you my blessing but if one day things don’t work out, you can come back home,” she recalled telling him.

Within days she received a call from him from New York where the couple had gone. She knew her son wanted to live there but he couldn’t afford the trip and she sent him money, with hopes he would come home. But it would be nearly two weeks before she saw her son again, late on Jan. 2.

Another family member, Armando Castillo, was killed within hours of his return. During the following nine days before his death, Jimenez went back and forth between Bradenton and Naples because he was doing construction jobs in Naples. Jimenez also attended a funeral service for Castillo, his cousin’s husband, on Thursday.

Rosa Jimenez remembered her son, the eldest of four, hugging her goodbye at the funeral. He was determined to return to Bradenton and make a life for himself. He told her not to worry and that he loved her.

“It was the last time I saw him alive,” she said.

Now Rosa Jimenez, her husband and their three other children, ages 19, 12 and 7 are struggling with his death.

“He was an excellent student in school. I never got a complaint about him,” Jimenez said.

He had been very proud of the medals he earned in the ROTC program at Lely High School in Naples, she said.

“He was a beautiful person with everyone,” she added. “ He was a good son.”

She couldn’t help recalling the funeral service she attended for Castillo hours before her son’s death, and watching his sobbing mother.

“I said, ‘God, I don’t want to ever feel the pain that woman is feeling. Poor woman, how much she is suffering,’” Jimenez said as she began to cry. “I would never imagine the next day I would receive the news of my sons”

Anyone with information on Alvarado’s whereabouts can call Bradenton police Detective James Curulla at 941-932-9300 or email crimetips@cityofbradenton.com. To remain anonymous and to be eligible for a reward of up to $3,000, call Crime Stoppers at 866-634-TIPS or send an anonymous E-tip through www.manateecrimestoppers.com.

This story was originally published January 15, 2019 at 7:26 AM.