23 Facts About Nelson Serrano

Nelson Ivan Serrano Saenz was an Ecuadorian-American businessman who was convicted of murdering Frank Dosso, Diane Patisso, George Patisso, and George Gonsalves in the town of Bartow, Polk County, Florida, on December 3,1997.

Nelson Serrano's conviction is controversial, and his culpability has been disputed.

However, millions of dollars were removed from corporate bank accounts after Nelson Serrano left the company, and only Dosso and Gonsalves had access to them.

Nelson Serrano deposited two checks totaling over $200,000 from Erie's sister company Garment Conveyor Systems, as requested by corporate counsel to keep monies safe from Dosso and Gonsalves.

Ultimately, Nelson Serrano was removed as president by a vote of the other two partners, and Nelson Serrano left the companies.

Shortly before Nelson Serrano was ousted as CEO, Phil Dosso and George Gonsalves had fired Nelson Serrano's son, Francisco.

Prosecutors said Nelson Serrano was angry because Gonsalves and Felice "Phil" Dosso, the third partner in the business, had ousted him and his son from both companies.

Nelson Serrano made statements indicating that he wished Gonsalves were deceased.

Authorities said both Nelson Serrano men had the motive to commit the murders, but Francisco Nelson Serrano provided an alibi.

Nelson Serrano's father told authorities he was in an Atlanta hotel room with a migraine headache all day, so no one saw him or talked to him.

Nelson Serrano stated that a Lincoln or Cadillac was parked outside.

The new attorneys for Nelson Serrano, headed by attorney Roy Black had uncovered that prosecutors withheld from trial defense attorneys the fact that an extradition process had already begun one week before Nelson Serrano's illegal deportation and state attorney Paul Wallace traveled to Ecuador, misled government officials to seek deportation obstructing the federal process of extradition.

Nelson Serrano's defense discovered that the Florida prosecutor and police concealed a third weapon used in the crime, a rifle for exclusive military use.

Nelson Serrano claimed that he was on a business trip, 500 miles away in Atlanta, when the killings occurred.

However, the prosecutors convinced the 12-member trial jury that Nelson Serrano had flown by airliner to Florida under assumed names to commit the premeditated murders.

Prosecutors stated that Nelson Serrano had tricked his nephew into providing him with a rental car to reach the other airport.

Nelson Serrano was an Ecuadorian citizen by birth and in 1971 became a naturalized American citizen.

Nelson Serrano was kidnapped in Ecuador by Florida-hired off-duty police officers and then, according to the Ecuadorian government and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, illegally deported back to Florida for his murder trial.

Ecuadorian officials, seeking his return to that country, claimed Nelson Serrano had been beaten and kept in a dog kennel at the airport in Quito after his arrest in Ecuador.

Police say Nelson Serrano suffered a minor fall injury as he boarded the airliner.

An American Airlines flight attendant who witnessed Nelson Serrano bleeding from the head with several bruises refused entry to the Florida officials, but the flight Captain allowed them to board.

Nelson Serrano was on death row at a male-only maximum security prison facility at the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida.

Nelson Serrano finally died after several days, on the night of August 7,2024, at the Jacksonville Hospital, in Florida, United States, of a heart attack, this was confirmed by Oscar Vela, his lawyer, on his X account the next day, where he expressed that he was finally free and that all that remained was to fight for his innocence.