Video: Miami biotech exec seen with alleged killer days before death

On February 12, a surveillance video captures Miami biotech executive Justin Zelin entering his Miami Beach condo with another man. Wearing a white T-shirt and shorts, the 35-year-old Harvard University graduate tosses a drink into a trash can inside a parking garage while a bearded man wearing a bucket hat follows behind him carrying what appears to be a bottle.

Just three days later, according to police, Zelin fell to his death from his 25th-floor apartment at the luxury high-rise Akoya Condominium in Miami Beach.

The newly released surveillance footage, obtained by NBC 6 South Florida, raises further questions about the February incident. Police have alleged the man seen walking behind Zelin in the video — 37-year-old Corey Hutterli — was responsible for his death.

On April 8, authorities charged Hutterli with second-degree murder in connection with Zelin’s death. Hutterli’s attorneys, however, maintain there is “no evidence” he pushed Zelin or caused his fatal fall.

“When the full facts and circumstances come to light, it will be clear that Justin Zelin was suffering from a psychotic break with reality as evidenced on the 911 call,” defense attorneys Jayne Weintraub and David Tarras previously told NBC 6 South Florida in a statement.

At around 10:20 a.m. on February 15, Zelin called 911 and was heard yelling at someone named “Sasha” to “get away,” according to an arrest affidavit, which notes that Hutterli’s alias is “Sasha.”

During the call, Zelin can be heard repeatedly demanding that Hutterli leave his apartment. At one point, according to the affidavit, the “clear sound of a struggle” between the two men can be heard.

About 10 minutes after the 911 call, Zelin’s body was seen on surveillance footage striking the pavement beside his apartment building, according to the affidavit. When police arrived, they encountered Hutterli leaving Zelin’s apartment “in an excited state,” sweating, out of breath, and wearing socks without shoes.

“What’s going on?” he asked police, according to the affidavit.

A short time later, he reportedly asked: “Did he jump?”

Police found Zelin’s apartment in “disarray,” with Hutterli’s sandals on the balcony, what appeared to be blood smudged on the balcony railing, and clumps of Hutterli’s beard hair scattered throughout the living room, according to the report. Hutterli’s bucket hat, which he was seen wearing in surveillance footage days earlier, was found on Zelin’s couch.

Upon searching Hutterli’s backpack, police found “a large chunk” of his beard hair, “as if he was attempting to both retrieve and conceal evidence from the scene,” as well as a small baggie of ketamine.

According to the arrest affidavit, investigators cited the 911 call, physical evidence, and injuries on Hutterli to support the conclusion that Hutterli was involved in a violent struggle with Zelin before Zelin fell from his 25th-floor apartment. The affidavit also notes that Zelin was not known to have expressed suicidal thoughts or tendencies.

“DNA evidence further corroborates that defendant Hutterli was at the location where the terminal event occurred and was involved in a violent altercation with victim Zelin that caused victim Zelin’s death,” the report reads.

However, court records filed by Hutterli’s attorneys in late May describe the events surrounding the 911 call differently.

In a motion to compel — in which the defense asks the court to order the state to produce an uncompressed, original recording of the 911 call by June 5 — attorneys say the case stems from an incident in which Hutterli was an overnight guest at Zelin’s Miami Beach apartment.

According to the filing, Zelin had awoken that morning and exited his bedroom “screaming at Hutterli, who had slept on the couch in the living room.” After a few seconds, Zelin called 911.

The filing claims that while Zelin initially sounded “calm and coherent” with the 911 operator, “after a few seconds, for no apparent reason,” he began screaming “in what can only be described as a complete break with reality.”

“JZ can be heard ranting, claiming that he was killed by a homeless person, and insisting that he is dead,” the filing reads. “During this mental break, JZ ran in and out of the apartment, and then he went over the balcony of the 25th floor condo and fell to his death.”

The filing also claims that Hutterli was in “an obvious state of shock” when he encountered police while leaving Zelin’s apartment.

Hutterli remains jailed in Miami ahead of his July 16 trial. His attorneys did not respond to New Times‘ request for comment.