2nd person arrested in Clearwater Beach beating death, police say
CLEARWATER — A second person, an 18-year-old man, has been arrested in the killing of a bicyclist found bludgeoned to death with a tire iron on Oct. 21 on Clearwater Beach.
Savonne Morrison, 18, of Land O’ Lakes was arrested Tuesday by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and faces a charge of being a principal to first-degree murder in the death of Jeffrey Chapman, 49, Clearwater police Deputy Chief Michael Walek announced Thursday.
Morrison will be moved to the Pinellas County Jail later, Walek said.
Morrison is the second person arrested in Chapman’s death, which occurred just after midnight on the 700 block of Mandalay Avenue in Clearwater.
On Oct. 22, the Clearwater Police Department announced the arrest of Jermaine Adrian Bennett, 26. During a news briefing that day, Walek said the vehicle used to get to Clearwater belonged to Bennett, who was arrested at his place of employment in Wesley Chapel by Pasco deputies.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 21, Morrison jumped out of Bennett’s vehicle on Mandalay Avenue and pushed Chapman from his bicycle while Bennett beat him with a long metal tool, Walek said Thursday.
“I would describe it as a tire iron that you find in the back of the trunk of your car to change your spare tire, where it has an attachment for the actual lug nut on it. I would describe it as a tool very similar to that,” he said.
Bennett confessed to killing Chapman after his arrest, Walek said, and he told police the attack was random. According to Walek, Bennett said the “ills of society” had gotten to him.
Earlier that night, Bennett and Morrison had gone to St. Petersburg, where Walek said the pair randomly hit multiple vehicles with a tire iron and beat an elderly man.
Clearwater police showed members of the media a video depicting Morrison and Bennett going up to different vehicles in the uptown area of downtown St. Petersburg and attempting to smash car windows. The video was obtained from cellphone footage, according to Walek.
Minutes later, according to Walek, Morrison and Bennett randomly beat an elderly man who was in the area of 22nd Avenue N in St. Petersburg. He said that attack took place just an hour before the two men drove to Clearwater and bludgeoned Chapman to death.
The elderly man’s name and age were not released. At the news conference Thursday, St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief Mike Kovacsev said the man suffered broken bones, including some of his ribs, but he is recovering.
“This was a senseless and horrendous crime that has no logical explanation,” Walek said.
He pointed to text and Instagram messages police say were sent between Morrison and Bennett as evidence of the men’s alleged actions on Oct. 21.
In an Instagram message sent just a few hours after Chapman’s death, Bennett wrote, “I committed two murders tonight,” according to a timeline provided by the Clearwater police.
Hours after Chapman’s death, Morrison texted Bennett a link to a news story about the Mandalay Avenue slaying, Walek said. In response, Bennett texted “lol,” which is short for “laugh out loud,” and referred to himself and Morrison as “legends,” according to Walek.
“They took a good man from his family and friends way too soon,” Walek said.
Walek described Chapman as a family man who regularly visited relatives in Maine every six weeks. Chapman, who worked in finance, regularly rode his bike around the beach community.
Chapman lived just a half-mile from where his body was found on Oct. 21.
Morrison did not show up in Pasco County Jail records Thursday. Bennett currently is being held in the Pinellas County Jail, according to records.
Times Staff Writer Christopher O’Donnell contributed to this report.
