Deadly 2022 in Lake County: 12 homicide investigations, 16 victims, and 3 months to go

TAVARES — There has been a flurry of homicides in Lake in 2022, and the county could end up breaking a bloody record in a year marred by tragic, savage and senseless crimes.

There have been 12 homicide investigations to date, with a total of 16 victims because four were double homicides.

Lake County Sheriff’s detectives especially had their hands in the searing hot days of August and early September, when their death toll jumped from four to eight.

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To put it in perspective, a record 19 homicides were recorded in 2018. At the halfway point that year, there were only seven.

Each case is unique, with different motives and circumstances. Every homicide investigator who has ever stood over a corpse knows it, and statistics back it up.

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The deaths of Sandra Gaudino and Ty Finister

Two of the most gruesome killings occurred in late August, when Justin Lamar Jones, 41, was accused of the mini-sledgehammer killings of Sandra Gaudino, whom he described as his wife, and her son, 17-year-old Ty Finister.

He then raped a woman for hours in his RV in Clermont, the sheriff's office has alleged.

Jones has been charged with two counts of first-degree domestic violence murder, one count of sexual battery domestic violence and one count of false imprisonment domestic violence.

A death in Lake County, with the body dumped in Weirsdale

That wasn’t the only bizarre case. Investigators checking on a missing person’s report were looking for a 26-year-old man named Casey Dean when a tipster reported hearing that Dean had been killed and was last seen with Matthew L. “Maniac” Allen, 26, on Aug. 28.

Dean was riding in a red 2015 Dodge Ram pickup truck, according to the informant. The truck was registered to a woman in the Leesburg area.

When investigators went to the property, they told residents there they were looking for Allen because he had outstanding warrants. Soon, a bizarre story began to unfold, according to witness statements summarized in an arrest affidavit.

Dean was sitting on a love seat across from Allen and the two were arguing. A handgun was sitting on a coffee table between them, the affidavit said.

“Why would you pull a gun on people that doesn’t work?” Allen asked.

Then, when a woman walked out of the room, she heard the gun off.

Dean was bleeding profusely and begging for help. Instead of calling 911, Allen asked him if he could “just put the gun in your hand so it looks like a suicide,” according to the affidavit.

Allen asked a man nicknamed “Meech” to help him dispose of the body. Allen also threatened his girlfriend, telling her that “if she told anyone, he would kill her and her children,” according to the affidavit.

One witness reported seeing the men carry garbage bags, presumably Dean’s belongings, to the truck.

Meech and Allen rolled up Dean’s body in a rug and carried it to the truck. Meech and his girlfriend stayed behind to clean up.

Allen then forced the woman to drive them to a trash-strewn property in Weirsdale, where they dumped the body, according to the affidavit. They disposed of the rug in a trash bin and the trash bags in other bins.

The woman was eventually allowed to drop her children off with a relative and was able to get away.

Allen has been charged with manslaughter, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, unlawful transportation of human remains, grand theft auto (the truck) and neglect of a child (a 7-year-old witnessed the shooting).

Detectives are looking for “Meech” and his girlfriend.

The account sounds like vintage gang violence, but according to sheriff's Lt. Fred Jones, there is “no appearance of gang involvement in reference to the threats with an inoperable gun; we are actively investigating that portion however no victim has come forward.”

Here's a look at some other Lake County homicides this year

Other homicide investigations in Lake so far this year include:

• In February, Leesburg Police arrested a 16-year-old Ocala man and charged him with first-degree murder in the death of Tyshawn Robinson, 28, on Waitman Avenue. The shooter allegedly fired during a disturbance involving a relative.

• Also in February, a shooting left two people dead at a home on Montclair Road in the Leesburg area. Jimmy Casteel was injured and on the front porch when deputies responded to a call about shots fired. Inside the home, they found the body of Jamari Jones, 20. Casteel was taken to UF Health, where he died.

• Alejandro Garcia Jr., 29, was shot to death at the Carolina Court Apartments on April 8. The case is unsolved, according to the Tavares Police Department.

• On May 5, deputies were called to the 19000 block of Altoona Road, where they found the body of 44-year-old Ernie W. Wilburn. Authorities arrested his roommate, Jesse F. Hill, 32, in July.

• On May 12, Groveland Police rushed to the scene of a shooting outside the We Are The Future Academy child care facility on Groveland Farms Road near State Road 50. Authorities later said it turned out to be a case of justifiable homicide. A press release said it began with two men in a “physical altercation which subsequently led to a shooting.”

• In July, James M. Carlton, 57, was arrested and charged with killing his daughter’s boyfriend, Austin Graham, 26, in a confrontation on Whitley Road west of Leesburg. Carlton died shortly afterward during a medical episode in jail.

• Alphonza Bryant, 40, was arrested by Leesburg police in connection with the Aug. 8 slaying of Melissa K. Smith, 37, in her home on Penn Street. Her body was discovered in an attached laundry room to her house. The two were acquaintances.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Authorities in Lake County, Florida confront a spate of homicides