Mathew Scott Flores was caught driving a automobile belonging to lacking man Gary Levin, police mentioned. (Flores’ mugshot by way of Rutherford County Sheriff’s Workplace. Levin’s image by way of Palm Seashore Gardens Police Division)
Authorities in Florida say a person murdered a Lyft driver and took the sufferer’s automobile in an try and flee one other murder declare.
An Okeechobee County grand jury indicted Mathew Scott Flores, 36, on Wednesday on a depend every of first-degree homicide with a firearm, theft with a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon for allegedly killing Gary Levin, 74.
As beforehand reported, authorities chased Flores, saying he killed Jose Carlos Martinez, 43, in Hardee County of Central Florida on Jan. 24. He allegedly fled with the assistance of Stefanie Velgara, who was charged as an adjunct after the actual fact.
In a press convention on Wednesday, authorities mentioned Flores absconded throughout central and southeast Florida, stealing a number of automobiles, altering his hiding areas, and preserving his household and mates in the dead of night about his whereabouts.
He allegedly went to Palm Seashore County, the place he deserted a stolen car in a driveway, and determined to return to North Carolina, the place he used to reside.
Tragically, that’s how he crossed paths with Levin, authorities mentioned. Flores allegedly acquired an acquaintance to get him a Lyft. Levin responded, picked up the defendant, and drove him into Okeechobee County, the place Flores murdered him. The suspect “cruelly dumped” the sufferer’s physique in a rural, wooded space, authorities mentioned.
Authorities mentioned they lastly arrested the suspect, driving Levin’s crimson Kia Stinger, on the finish of a three-county chase ending in Rutherford County, North Carolina.
They pressured him off the street, inflicting him to crash, and arrested him.
Authorities initially charged Flores with homicide within the second diploma in Martinez’s loss of life, however a grand jury bumped that as much as homicide within the first diploma. He confronted expenses in North Carolina, together with felony fleeing to elude arrest and possession of a stolen motorized vehicle, however prosecutors there dismissed the case so their counterparts in Florida may pursue homicide allegations.
“The crime was mindless, calculating, and chilly. Mr. Levin was a beloved member of the Palm Seashore Gardens neighborhood,” Particular Agent in Cost Eli Lawson mentioned. “He was a father and a buddy. His family members have skilled an insurmountable quantity of grief that nobody ought to ever should undergo.”
Authorities requested for privateness on behalf of Levin’s household.
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