Central Florida man accused of murdering 2 people with hammer faces judge
Man who murdered two people this weekend appears before a judge.
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Orange County deputies believe 29-year-old Jose Cantarero murdered two people with a hammer.
Cantarero appeared before a judge on Monday afternoon.
He is being held on no bond, facing two charges of first-degree murder.
The suspect’s brother is the one who called law enforcement.
Investigators said Cantarero was a suspect for the murders at a home on Tucker Avenue near Colonial Drive and Semoran Boulevard.
Deputies arrested Cantarero after he came back to the house where the bodies were found.
People who live in the property attached to the home told Channel Nine they knew the suspect because he had slept on their floor one night and was doing construction work on the property.
Frances Stoltz and Robert Diaz have lived in the neighborhood for decades.
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“It’s kind of scary,” Stoltz said. “You know, to have it in your neighborhood and stuff.. I think maybe keeping our doors locked.”
Investigators say a witness called police and told them his brother, Jose Cantarero, beat two men to death, hitting them in the head with a hammer.
“That’s a terrible way of dying,” Diaz said.
In the arrest document, Cantarero’s brother said he was in the back shed when Cantarero walked out of the home with a hammer and asked him to help move the bodies.
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The brother claims he said no but then went inside the home and saw Cantarero using the hammer to play with the remains and said, “That’s what you get.”
The brother left, and Cantarero showered and changed clothes at another residence. He then returned to the crime scene on Tucker Avenue.
That’s when deputies arrested him. A red splotch, strongly resembling blood, was still on his arm, and the hammer was found by the back door.
The brother claims the men were killed for revenge.
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