http://www.wesh.com/news/2683438/detail.html
Sanford Man Investigated In Triple Homicide
Carrasquillo Arrested On Unrelated Charge
POSTED: 4:42 p.m. EST December 4, 2003
UPDATED: 4:48 p.m. EST December 4, 2003
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A Sanford man was taken into custody Thursday for questioning in connection with a triple homicide in Orange City earlier this week.
Javier Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, was taken into custody at about 1:30 p.m. at a mental health facility in Seminole County, WESH NewsChannel 2 reported.
Investigators had been searching for Carrasquillo (pictured, left) to question him about any relevant information regarding the murders. He was arrested on a warrant for resisting arrest without violence, a charge unrelated to the triple homicide.
"During the course of the investigation, Javier came to our attention because he has been to the victims' home on several previous occasions asking for rides," said Volusia County sheriff's Lt. Gordon Meyer. "Due to his history of violence and contact with the victims, we're very interested to see whether he has any information about this case."
Investigators have been interviewing friends, family and acquaintances of the victims since the bodies of Carmen Negron and her two sons, Gilberto Vergara-Negron and Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negron, were discovered inside their Biscayne Drive residence Monday night.
To comment on this story, send an e-mail to Shannon FitzPatrick.
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http://www.news-journalonline.com/breakingnews/arrested.htm
Monday, December 4, 2003
Last update: 3:50 p.m.
Man wanted for questioning in triple homicide arrested
By KRISTEN MOCZYNSKI
STAFF WRITER
DELAND -- Volusia County Sheriff?s investigators have arrested a "person of interest" wanted for questioning in the triple homicide at a home near Orange City.
Javier Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, was taken into custody today at a Seminole County mental health facility on a warrant for resisting arrest. Carrasquillo had checked himself into the facility sometime Monday, Sheriff?s Lt. Gordon Meyer said.
Investigators have been searching for Carrasquillo, hoping to question him to see if he has any relevant information regarding the deaths of Carmen Negron and Gilberto and Yamir Vergara-Negron. The charge isn?t related to the deaths and Carrasquillo has not been named a suspect, Meyer said.
Investigators are questioning Carrasquillo and will attempt to match his fingerprints today to those found at the scene, Meyer said.
The Negrons were shot and stabbed in their home sometime Monday and found at 7:20 p.m. by fellow Jehovah?s Witnesses who went to the house for Bible study.
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It isn't mentioned in the above articles, but the local 5pm news today said that at another (unrelated) time, this guy, Carrasquillo, was walking down a street covered with blood and the cops stopped him. Seems his injuries were self-inflicted so they Baker-Act'ed him. I'm wondering if the guy, being a little mentally unbalanced, may have hurt this family....
3 Jehovah's Witnesses Found Murdered
by Kenneson 35 Replies latest jw friends
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abbagail
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abbagail
12/4/03, Thursday night's 11pm local news... I was falling asleep but I heard them say that someone had said that the then-suspect, Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, had said he was going to "get a knife and kill some Jehovah's Witnesses."
As you may already know, the police picked up Carrasquillo Thursday. They had been looking for him because they knew he frequented the home of the JW victims, getting rides from the brothers to various places, etc.
Also, Carrasquillo was Baker-Acted last March by the police when they found him walking down the street covered in blood with self-inflicted wounds (per a prior newscast). He fought the police when they tried to Baker Act him.
So, when they found him at a mental clinic during this past week after the murders, they immediately 'arrested' him not on the current murders, but on the prior charge of 'resisting arrest with violence' when they tried to Baker-Act him. This current arrest gave them opportunity to hold him and interrogate him about the current murders.
I missed the 5 and 11 pm news tonight, Friday, 12/5/03, but I just saw the 12:30am rebroadcast of the WFTV-ABC-Channel #9 11pm news, and they said Carrasquillo has confessed to killing the three JW's. The news said that he "used to be a member of the victims' church but was KICKED OUT." They also said Carrasquillo told his mother he is the Anti-Christ. The police said "a very dangerous person is now off the street" and that the victims "for a few minutes were no doubt in great fear knowing they were in a very bad situatioin." Carrasquillo is being held in the Volusia County Jail and will face a grand-jury on December 15th.
BTW, the news has been reporting that the victims were shot and stabbed. I had wondered how he could kill all three of them without a struggle or a fight, but evidently he just walked in and shot them one by one and incapacitated them.
Also, it says they were killed on SUNDAY but not found until before their book study on Monday around 7 pm. That's terrible!
Even though the TV news said Carrasquillo had been 'kicked out' (their words) of the same church, the below Daytona newspaper article says he had asked for the congregation's forgiveness and was still a member in good standing, as far as they know.
Current news articles below...
Grits -
abbagail
Orlando Sentinel.com http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-asecslayings06120603dec06,1,3083782.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
Slayings suspect is formally accused
By Alicia A. Caldwell | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 6, 2003
PHOTOS
Javier Carrasquillo
DELAND -- Javier Carrasquillo's own mother was terrified of him after he told her he "made a pact with Satan to sacrifice human life."
Carrasquillo told his mother, Leida Rivera, and grandmother Natividad Ortiz about the pact two months ago. His mother warned members of a local church with whom he once worshipped. She was afraid for them and herself.
She told Volusia County deputies who were looking for her son about the pact this week, according to court documents. Then she asked to be moved into a safe house.
Carrasquillo, 28, was formally accused Friday of three counts of first-degree murder in the violent slayings of members of a Volusia County family who tried to help him. He had been arrested at the Seminole County Mental Health Center in Sanford on Thursday on an unrelated warrant and was expected to be taken back to Volusia on Friday night.
Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said Friday that Carrasquillo confessed to the killings, telling investigators that on Sunday he shot Carmen Negrón, 63, and Gilberto Vergara-Negrón, 28, and then shot 26-year-old Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negrón and cut his throat. The bodies of the Negróns, devout members of the Orange City Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, were discovered in their home Monday night by another church member.
Elders at the church told investigators that they took seriously the homicidal threats relayed by Carrasquillo's mother, who could not be reached for comment Friday, and even held meetings recently behind locked doors. The elders told investigators Carrasquillo had been "censored," a form of exile from the church.
Carrasquillo, who told investigators he thought he had become the "anti-Christ" since leaving the church, was a patient at the mental-health center when he killed the family, Johnson said.
The Negrón family had befriended Carrasquillo through the church and gave him rides on several occasions. Investigators think that before Sunday, he had last been at the house about a month ago. Carrasquillo said "he had come to dislike the victims and made a decision to kill them," according to the court documents.
After the killings, church members told investigators that the Negróns had been fearful of Carrasquillo.
Carrasquillo's relatives in Puerto Rico said in telephone interviews Friday that he has a long history of mental illness.
In March he was involuntarily committed to a Volusia County mental-health facility after deputies found him bloodied and wandering down a Deltona street.
As they tried to take him into protective custody under the Baker Act -- the state law that allows for involuntary commitment of up to 72 hours -- he became extremely violent, asking deputies to shoot him. The deputies used a Taser stun gun to subdue him, then took him to a local hospital. He had to be subdued again at the hospital. According to a report of the incident, Carrasquillo told deputies he was suicidal because he had lost his job and broken up with his fiancée.
Ortiz, who spoke via telephone from her home in Puerto Rico, said in Spanish that her grandson has suffered from mental problems since childhood. "He wasn't right," Ortiz said. The family had tried for years to get help for him, but he often refused.
In a phone interview from Puerto Rico, his younger sister, Sheyla Carrasquillo, 20, said he had always been a good person, but "he is a different person since being hit in the head."
In April, Seminole County deputies found Javier Carrasquillo nearly unconscious in a Sanford parking lot. According to a sheriff's report, Carrasquillo had been hit in the head and face by at least one person who robbed him. He was airlifted to an Orlando hospital.
Carrasquillo started becoming violent after he was hit, said Ortiz, Carrasquillo's grandmother.
Carrasquillo on Thursday told investigators he suffers from schizophrenia. It was unclear Friday whether he has ever been diagnosed with the condition. An official at the Seminole County Mental Health Center said she could not comment on his case or condition or confirm whether he was a patient.
Johnson, the Volusia sheriff, said Carrasquillo had been at the mental-health center -- where he could come and go as he pleased during the day -- for about a month when he was arrested. Johnson did not know whether Carrasquillo had gone to the facility voluntarily.
Employees at a Sanford sports shop told investigators this week that Carrasquillo made a down payment Oct. 20 on a 9 mm Taurus handgun. He picked up the gun Nov. 15. Two days before the killings, he went back to the store and bought $17.95 worth of hollow-point bullets.
Johnson said Friday it appeared Carrasquillo bought the gun legally. He does not have a criminal record in Florida, according to arrest records. Puerto Rican police officials also could not find any criminal records for Carrasquillo.
According to court documents, Carrasquillo detailed the killings for investigators Thursday, giving the following account:
Sunday, he took a cab from the mental-health center to the Negrón house. He immediately asked to use the bathroom, where he made the decision to kill the family. When he came out a few minutes later, he quickly shot Gilberto Vergara-Negrón in a bedroom and then Carmen Negrón in a bathroom. He then tried to kill Yamir Vergara-Negrón, but the youngest member of the family put up a fearsome struggle. He cut Yamir Vergara-Negrón's throat and shot him before leaving the house in the family's 1995 Honda Civic. He didn't take anything else before driving to a parking lot near the Orlando Police Department, where he left the car.
The car was found Tuesday. Orlando parking-services officials said the car was ticketed twice Monday, once at 4:48 p.m. and again at 11:18 p.m.
After parking the car, Carrasquillo took a cab back to the mental-health center, where he burned his shoes and clothes before tossing them in a trash bin, according to court documents. Johnson said the container was emptied before investigators could search it.
Other than burning his clothes, investigators said, Carrasquillo did not try to hide his crime and told them where to find his dismantled gun. Investigators found part of the gun in his room at the Sanford facility and his fingerprints inside the Negrón house.
They do not think anyone else was involved. "He was our prime suspect, our only suspect in Sunday's murders," Johnson said.
Eugenio Muriel, the church elder who found the bodies, said he was relieved to hear of Carrasquillo's arrest. "I believe by the news that he might be in a lot of pain," Muriel said. "But still, the biggest pain was seeing the family slaughtered like that."
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Pedro Ruz Gutierrez and Errin Haines of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Alicia A. Caldwell can be reached at [email protected] or 386-851-7924. -
abbagail
SATURDAY, DEC. 6, 2003 Daytona Beach News-Journal
THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF VOLUSIA & FLAGLER COUNTIES
Slaying suspect jailed
Deputies question troubled man in 3 deaths
http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/ochomicide/index.html
A Jehovah's Witness with a history of mental illness who sometimes received rides from a West Volusia family was named Thursday as a suspect in their slayings.
(see story below/it's the same story with updated headline...)
Man faces first-degree murder charges
in deaths of three Orange City family members
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD02120503.htm
By KRISTEN MOCZYNSKI and PATRICIO G. BALONA
Staff Writers
Last update: 05 December 2003
DELAND -- A man with a history of mental illness, who sometimes received rides from a West Volusia family found dead this week, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder today.
Orlando Carrasquillo, 28, who had been arrested on unrelated charges a day earlier, was formally charged this morning in the deaths of a woman and her two sons on Sunday, a spokesman for Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.
During an afternoon press conference, investigators said Carrasquillo confessed to the crime and said he believed he was "the anti-Christ." Investigators also said Carrasquillo's mother, who is being kept at a safe house, told them her son said he had made a pact with the devil.
Five knives were found at the scene of the triple homicide, including two that had blood on them, investigators said. Parts of a gun also were found at the mental health facility where Carrasquillo has been living. The family members had been shot and stabbed.
Fellow church members said they had heard the man make threats about harming the family. "We were told that (Carrasquillo) had said that he was going to get a weapon and kill a family," said church elder and family friend Eugenio Muriel.
Volusia County Sheriff's investigators took Carrasquillo into custody Thursday afternoon at a Seminole County mental health facility on an outstanding warrant for resisting arrest with violence, Sheriff's Lt. Gordon Meyer said. He is being held at the Seminole County jail without bail.
Late Thursday, investigators were questioning Carrasquillo in connection with the slayings of Carmen Negron, 63, and her sons Gilberto Vergara-Negron, 28, and Yamir Orlando Vergara-Negron, 26. The three were killed in their home on Biscayne Avenue near Orange City sometime Sunday, investigators said.
The DeBary Spanish-speaking congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses recently tried to help Carrasquillo with his drug problem, and when he did not cooperate, he was expelled from the church, Muriel said. But Muriel said Carrasquillo subsequently returned to ask the congregation's forgiveness and "as far as I know, he was still a member of the church."
He said the Negron family knew Carrasquillo and may have offered him help with his drug problem as well.
"They were very kind and giving people and it would not surprise me to know that they were trying to do good for him," Muriel said. He went on to say they were a very close family. "Wherever one went, the three of them went," Muriel said.
Investigators say Carrasquillo has a violent past and may have been at the victims' home within the past month. Carrasquillo knew the men of the family and went to their home to ask for rides occasionally, Meyer said.
Investigators learned about Carrasquillo from family and friends, and deputies had been searching for him since Monday. His last known address was in Sanford, Meyer said. Carrasquillo was peacefully taken into custody at the mental health facility, which the Sheriff's Office is not naming.
Carrasquillo was taken into custody under the state's Baker Act in March after he was found walking down a Deltona street in bloody clothing. He had attempted to commit suicide and taunted deputies to shoot him, according to a sheriff's report.
Deputies had to use a Taser gun to subdue Carrasquillo, who said he harmed himself because his fiancee had broken up with him and he lost his job, the report states. Carrasquillo later became physically violent with the nurses and paramedics treating his injuries.
Ernest Anderson, a longtime Deltona resident who lived near Carrasquillo last March on Crawford Street, described him as "strange"and said he often appeared to be intoxicated. "He never seemed to have a job. He didn't seem to be anything, just weird."
Anderson recalled the March incident. He said officers followed Carrasquillo to his back yard where he pulled out a knife and cut his own forearms.
A warrant charging Carrasquillo with resisting arrest was issued Wednesday, Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. Meyer did not elaborate on why the warrant was not issued in March.
Evidence collected from the Negrons' home and car was sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab in Orlando for analysis. The vehicle, a 1995 Honda Civic that Gilberto drove, was missing from the house Monday and found abandoned Tuesday in Orlando.
Autopsies on all three bodies have been completed. Family and friends are arranging a funeral for Saturday at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Orange City.
Roberto Negron, Carmen's brother and only relative here, said his three sisters in Puerto Rico could not afford to travel to Florida to attend their eldest sibling's funeral.
A tearful Roberto Negron, speaking through a translator, said he visited his sister often and last saw her the Thursday before she was killed.
"The pain is not going to go away for a long time," Muriel said.
Lyda Negron-Vergara, who is not a relative but lives near their former neighborhood in Cortijo, Bayamon, in Puerto Rico, expressed her sympathies by telephone.
"The crime did not happen in our neighborhood but it surely has shocked us," she said. "Everyone knew the family to be an upstanding and good family. We are not related, but it is very heart-breaking to lose loved ones, especially at a time nearing Christmas."
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kristen.moczynski@news-jrnl.com
patricio.balona@news-jrnl.com
-- Staff Writer Mark Harper contributed to this report. -
Kenneson
Sunday, December 7, 2003 Daytona Beach News Journal Online
Slain mom, sons eulogized at service
By Patricio G. Balona
Staff Writer
ORANGE CITY--With hugs and tears, hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses embraced and comforted the family of a mother and two sons found slain in their home this week.
Outside the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses at 1500 Minnesota Ave. on Saturday night, a large crowd also braved the cold weather, joining in a memorial service held for the family of Carmen Negron, 63, Gilberto Vergara-Negron, 28, and Yamir Orland Vergera-Negron, 26, were found shot and stabbed to death in their Biscayne Drive home near Orange City on Monday night.
But Javier Orlando Carrasquillo, accused of killing the family, walked alone into an empty courtroom at Volusia County Branch Jail on Saturday morning. With chains around his waist and feet, his hands cuffed in front, Carrasquillo appeared before County Judge Stacia Warren charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
He looked around the courtroom, as if expecting to see the family of his alleged victims, but no family, friends or church members were present. He was quiet and subdued answering "yes" and "no" to questions posed by the judge.
At the memorial service, prayers and scriptures were read, giving hope to hurting family and friends from 20 congregations in Orlando, Daytona Beach and surrounding areas and as far as Puerto Rico.
"Although we may feel anger, let us leave justice in the hands of Jehovah," said Hernando Gomez. "We know the authorities will bring about justice but let us be strong in our faith that Jehovah will carry out the final judgment."
Miguel Mendez, an elder with the Deland Hispanic Jehovah's Witness congregation, pulled up the podium in his wheelchair to talk about the Negrons. Carmen Negon became a Jehovah's Witness as a young adult and taught her two sons the faith, Mendez said. The woman who became a widow when her Gilberto was 9 and Yamir 7, never faltered even when trying times faced her, Mendez said.
"She was very friendly, warm and generous and opened her door to everone," Mendez said. "She worked hard to serve Jehovah, her family and neighbors."
The Negrons befriended Carrasquillo, even offering him rides, investigators said. He had problems with drugs and the Negrons may have been trying to help him, said Orange City Jehovah's Witness elder Eugenio Muriel.
"Our brothers and sisters died practicing mercy," Gomez said. "They believed in extending mercy to others."
Days after the murder, the DeBary congregation to which Carrasquillo once belonged, suspended services for fear of running into Carrasquillo, said Pablo Mateo, leader of the Orange City congregation.
"But we all feel a lot safer now that the authorities have him," Mateo said.
The family extended their appreciation and thanks to the authorities for their fast work, and said the mother and sons will be greatly missed.
"They were like the Three Musketeers," said Hector Rivera, Carmen Nigron's cousin. "All for one and one for all."
-Staff writer Deborah Circelli contributed to the report.
-
Kenneson
From the Orlando Sentinel
Faith consoles crowd at service for slain family
By Alicia A. Caldwell/Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 7, 2003
ORANGE CITY--Under a starry sky, hundreds of mourners solemnly filed into the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on Saturday night.
Clouds of condensation, markers of conversation on a cold and otherwise still night, hovered above as people walked to the front of the hall. By 6:40 p.m., the small house of worship was nearly full, forcing ushers to briefly stop people from entering.
As the memorial service for Carmen Negron, 63, and her sons Gilberto Vergera-Negron, 28, and Yamir Orlando Vergera-Negro, 26, began moments after 7 p.m., dozens of mourners lined the buildings foyer, along a wall inside the main meeting room and anywhere else they could find a space. Others stood outside in temperatures in the 40s for the hour-long service.
Whether they had a seat or stood outside, people gathered to console those who knew the Negron family and recite the words of faith that many said would help them go on after the family's slayings last week.
Tammy Dyer, a Jehovah's Witness from Deland, said the faith's teachings that say the Negrons are "sleeping" as they wait for the "resurrection and creation of a new world" console them now. Dyer, like many who attended Saturday night's service, did not know the Negron family. But that didn't matter, she and others said.
"Altlhough I am not of the same language...we're still of he same spiritual family," said Aaron Howell, who attends metings as part of the English-speaking congregation. "When one of our family goes through this pain, we all do."
Elders at the Orange City Kingdom Hall held Saturday night's service in English and Spanish. Thre small pictures of the family and several flower arrangments adorned the front of the hall.
Hernando Gomez, an elder from an area Kingdom Hall, told audience members to maintain their faith and follow the example of Negron and her sons, all faithful members of the Orange City church.
"We must continue to extend mercy to others the way our sister Negron and hers sons did," Gomez said, subtly noting that the man held in the killings may have taken advantage of the family's mercy.
Javier Carrasquillo is being held in the Volusia County Jail without bail on three counts of murder. He was arrested Friday after authorities said he confessed to the killings.
Relatives of the Negron family did not speak publicly during the service. Gomez said they were grateful to their religious community and others for the support they had been given in the past week.
Burial services for the three have tentatively been scheduled for Dec. 20. No other details were available.
Though church leaders planned for a large crowd Saturday--a speaker was placed outside to broadcast the service--one elder said he was surprised by the size of the audience.
"It is surprising," Eugenio Muriel said. "But that is what Jehovah's Witnesses are all about."
Alicia A. Caldwell can be reached at 386-851-7924 or [email protected]