Oscar Adrian Solis, left, is accused of killing Randall Cooke in Florida on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Solis’ mugshot photo from the Pasco County Jail; Cooke’s photo from his wife’s Facebook page)
A man described as a violent felon and member of a notorious street gang who just got out of prison is accused of pulling an Uber Eats driver into his home on his last delivery of the night and robbing, killing, dismembering and discarding his remains in trash bags on the property.
Oscar Adrian Solis, 30, a suspected member of the international gang MS-13, faces murder and robbery charges in the death of Randall Cooke on April 19 at a home in Holiday, Florida, about 30 miles northwest of Tampa, authorities said.
Sheriff’s officials did not identify the victim. But his family came forward, identifying Cooke as a husband, stepdad to two daughters and father to three other children.
His stepdaughter Melany Dzoba told Tampa Bay’s ABC Action News he was a dedicated husband and a fun-loving dad.
“He was the most perfect man,” Dzoba said. “Such a happy guy. I mean, we all go through our ups and downs. We’re all still human, but he just — he was always just so happy and just trying to have fun and laugh — all the time.”
In a news conference on Tuesday, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco described the killing as gruesome and demonic.
“This was absolutely a horrific crime of passion,” he said. “This person, you know, you always say the word ‘evil,’ but this is demonic.”
An Uber spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Law& Crime they are heartbroken.
“There is no reason why Mr. Cooke shouldn’t be home with his family today, and we are keeping his loved ones in our thoughts,” the statement said. The statement added that Uber has been in close contact with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office throughout their investigation.
The horror happened before 7 p.m. on April 19. Cooke texted his wife he was making his last delivery and would be home soon. This was something he always did to let his wife, Kathy Cooke, know he was safe and on his way home, she said on her daughter’s Facebook page after he had been missing for two days.
She said she grew worried as time passed.
“I realized that something was wrong,” she said.
She called his two cellphones multiple times, but they were turned off.
“I never heard back from him.”
She notified authorities, and they began their search.
The sheriff said a missing persons unit used his last-known GPS coordinates and went to the home of his last delivery but noticed nothing suspicious on the property, and nobody answered the door.
“There was no evidence of anything going on,” Nocco said. “But we kept following up on leads.”
Investigators returned to the house on Friday when a roommate provided a partial video showing the delivery driver walking up to the house before the video cuts off, the sheriff said.
Video later captured the suspect carrying trash bags with another individual around the side of the house the next day, he said. Details about the second person seen in the video were not available.
Detectives found human remains inside some of the bags, the sheriff said.
A crime scene was secured, forensics and the medical examiner were called, and Solis was initially booked into custody for failing to register in Pasco County as a felon and violating his parole in Indiana. On Monday, Solis was charged with felony murder and robbery, officials said. Investigators found the victim’s wedding ring and car keys in a room in the house, authorities said.
The sheriff said Solis is a member of a violent and entrenched gang known as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The U.S. Department of Justice described it as well-organized, heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, and notorious for using violence to meet its objectives.
The sheriff said Solis was just released from an Indiana prison following a more than four-year sentence for assault and burglary in January before he moved to Florida. The sheriff listed his criminal history, which includes possession of stolen auto parts, drugs, resisting law enforcement and battery on detention staff.
“He supposedly stabbed somebody several times while he was in prison in Indiana,” Nocco said. “So you’re talking about a very violent individual that Indiana released and sent down to Florida.”
Officials said two other individuals shown leaving Solis’ home have been identified and interviewed, but it was unclear whether additional arrests were pending, and detectives were unsure of a motive.
The sheriff said the victim and suspect did not know each other, and there was no apparent beef before the encounter.
“There doesn’t appear to be any relationship,” the sheriff said. “All it appears is that there was a gentleman who was working, was doing his last delivery of the night, and this person killed him for no reason. And it took him away from his family.”
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