Delivery worker for Best Buy guilty in 2019 murder of Boca Raton grandmother

WEST PALM BEACH — The voices told Jorge Dupre Lachazo to kill. Kill her now, they said, as he installed a dryer inside Evelyn Smith Udell’s laundry room. Kill her now, or else.

Dupre Lachazo’s lawyers tried to keep his statements to Boca Raton police out of his murder trial, but in the end, it didn’t matter. His fingerprints on the mallet that beat in Udell’s skull, and on the can of acetone used to light her body on fire, said enough.

Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss convicted Dupre Lachazo of premeditated murder at the conclusion of a three-day bench trial Wednesday. The verdict was hers alone; Dupre Lachazo opted for a rare nonjury trial, sometimes reserved for cases that attorneys believe are too gruesome or emotional for a jury to rule on objectively.

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A translator sat where 12 jurors normally would Wednesday, murmuring in Spanish to Dupre Lachazo while Weiss announced her decision. Dupre Lachazo’s mother and Udell’s son sat on opposite sides of the courtroom gallery, both tense.

They’d endured the trial stoically, eyes averted from the crime scene and autopsy photos that prosecutors displayed on a large screen for the judge.

Weiss didn’t flinch from the images. She scribbled notes, nodding occasionally as first responders described in detail what happened on Aug. 19, 2019, the day Dupre Lachazo arrived at Udell's home off Jog and Yamato roads to deliver a washer and dryer she bought at a local Best Buy.

Prosecutor says delivery driver's greed led to murder of Evelyn Smith Udell

A Boca Raton firefighter stumbled out of the laundry room, his eyes huge.

“It’s bad, it’s f------ bad,” he told his partner. “She’s on fire.”

Behind him, Udell was propped against her new washing machine, the top half of her body covered in flames. Blood soaked her hair. She moaned.

Firefighters and paramedics described the same scene in detail Monday: the smell of Udell burning, the way her skin seemed to blacken as they tried to extinguish the flames.

Dupre Lachazo had fled from the Boca Raton home by then, leaving behind the bloodied rubber mallet he struck Udell's head with and the can of paint thinner he used to light her on fire afterward.

Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott argued Monday that voices didn't drive him to kill the 75-year-old retired librarian. It was greed, he said, "an attempt to take money, take more money, take all the money" — to take whatever he wanted.

Boca Raton police found $203 in Dupre Lachazo's pocket when they arrested him, more than his co-worker said they received in tips that day. Scott suggested it came from Udell's wallet, which detectives found open and rummaged through, a dollar bill left burning beside her.

Defense concedes attack but raises doubts about intent to kill

Public defenders Renee Sihvola and Scott Pribble pushed back against the prosecutor's theory that a dispute over money precipitated the attack. To believe cash in the pocket of a young Hispanic delivery driver could only be stolen is "a dangerous assumption," Sihvola told the judge.

She didn't deny that Dupre Lachazo attacked Udell, but argued prosecutors couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill her.

Pribble asked the judge to consider how stress and panic can affect a person's ability to reason, how Dupre Lachazo's age and emotional state, his immaturity, and his cocaine use the night before could have impaired his judgement and intention.

Premeditation can be formed in an instant, Scott countered. It took Dupre Lachazo longer than that to swing the mallet into Udell's head again and again, he said. Weiss agreed.

She reached her verdict moments after the attorneys finished their closing arguments: guilty of first-degree murder, arson and battery.

Udell's son began to weep. He will have a chance to address Dupre Lachazo directly on April 5, when Weiss is slated to sentence him to prison.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best Buy delivery worker guilty in 2019 murder of Boca Raton woman