Florida man found not guilty of killing roommate at sex offender motel near Daytona Beach

A sex offender on trial for murder testified Thursday that he did not kill his roommate at a motel that specializes in housing sex offenders and sexual predators west of Daytona Beach.

A few hours later, Wayne B. Hibbs III sat next to his attorney, Assistant Public Defender John Selden, as the jury’s verdict was read: not guilty of second-degree murder. Shortly after, Hibbs appeared to be wiping his face around his eyes.

The jury of five women and one man took about 90 minutes to reach its verdict. Jurors declined comment as they left the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.

Hibbs, 55, was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail at 9:21 p.m. Thursday, according to jail records.

Marc W. Pinder, 69, was found dead three years ago in room No. 2 at the Speedway Motel, 3753 W. International Speedway, near Daytona Beach. The motel for years has housed people convicted of sex crimes. It is currently home to 19 sex offenders and 12 sexual predators, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s website.

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Hibbs pleaded no contest in 2002 in Volusia County to lewd or lascivious exhibition with a victim under 16 by an offender 18 or over, and lewd and lascivious conduct. Hibbs was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 15 years' probation.

Pinder was convicted in Orange County in 2012 of five charges: lewd, lascivious battery, sex with victim 12 to 15 years of age; procuring a person under 18 years of age for prostitution; soliciting or attempting to solicit a child for sex/lewdness; traveling to meet a minor to commit unlawful sexual offense; and lewd, lascivious battery with a victim 12 to 15 years of age, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s sex offender website.

After their release from prison, both men wound up in room No. 2 at the motel.

And while jurors were informed that the men had been in some kind of facility before their move to the motel, they were not told the two were sex offenders.

Hibbs denies being the killer

Probation officers went to the motel Feb. 28, 2020, to check on Pinder when he did not respond to their calls. When Pinder, who was on oxygen, did not answer his door, another motel resident opened the unit and entered the room.

Pinder was found face up in bed, a bloody pillow covered his head. His skull had been bashed in. The murder weapon was a blood-stained 15-pound dumbbell.

Hibbs testified during the trial, saying he was not responsible for the death.

Selden asked Hibbs about a couple of “elephants in the room.”

"Did you kill Marc Pinder?” Selden asked.

“I did not,” HIbbs said.

“Did you cause any harm to Marc Pinder at all?” Selden asked.

Hibbs said he did not.

Hibbs would turn to the jury at times as he testified. Hibbs spoke softly and was at times difficult to hear in the gallery.

A dead man's car

During cross examination, Assistant State Attorney Mark Interlicchio said the medical examiner stated that Pinder died in the early morning hours.

"He was alive when I left," Hibbs said.

"He was alive when you left. When you left with his phone, his bankcard and his car," Interlicchio said.

Hibbs said that he left the motel room that day to go to work. He took Pinder’s car because Pinder asked him to change the tires on the car. Pinder was hoping to get permission from his probation officers to drive out of state for a funeral and he wanted the car ready.

Hibbs said he found out Pinder was dead when another motel resident called his work. Hibbs voluntarily spoke to detectives about the case and was not arrested at that point. But he said later he worried that he had become a suspect. He said he cut off his ankle monitor and fled and hoped that the real killer was captured.

During closing arguments, Interlicchio said that Hibbs was behind on rent. Interlicchio said there were no signs of forced entry into the room. And he said that Pinder was surprised during the attack and did not have any defensive wounds. Interlicchio said Pinder had planned to go to his girlfriend's house that morning, and questioned why would he tell Hibbs to take his car.

Selden said during his closing argument that Hibbs did not act like a killer. He said it didn’t make sense that Hibbs would kill Pinder and then take Pinder’s car and go to work as if nothing had happened. He said if Hibbs had been the killer, it made more sense that he would have immediately cut off his ankle monitor, got in the car and driven far away.

Selden also disputed that Pinder died in the early morning, saying that a first responder did not find signs of rigor mortis, for example. And he said that Pinder could have changed his mind about visiting his girlfriend and had planned to tell her, but he died before he had the chance.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Man found not guilty of killing roommate at Florida sex offender motel