Greenacres-area man, 54, facing murder charge after beating death at mobile-home park
GREENACRES — A 54-year-old man is facing a murder charge in connection to the beating death of another man this month near Greenacres.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office took Rubel Boteo Medrano into custody Wednesday, Jan. 24, on one count of second-degree murder. Investigators say he knocked 38-year-old Ernesto Ruiz Lopez to the ground and kicked him multiple times during an altercation on the morning of Jan. 8 in a community near Greenacres. Their arrest report redacts the community's name.
Ruiz Lopez, who lived near the site of the fatal beating, died Tuesday, Jan. 23, of injuries sustained in the attack, the sheriff's office said. The county Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide caused by complications from blunt force head injuries.
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During a hearing Thursday at the Palm Beach County Jail, Circuit Judge Donald Hafele ordered that Boteo Medrano be held without bail. An attorney who represented him in court could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to an arrest report, deputies responded shortly before 11 a.m. Jan. 8 to the Greenacres Plaza shopping center near South Jog and Lake Worth roads after receiving a report regarding a person injured in a battery.
Paramedics took Ruiz Lopez to Wellington Regional Medical Center, where doctors determined that he had severe head trauma and had him transferred to the trauma intensive-care unit at Delray Medical Center. Deputies learned that Ruiz Lopez and Boteo Medrano had been involved in an altercation at a nearby mobile-home park.
A surveillance video provided by the staff of the mobile home park reportedly showed Ruiz Lopez leaning against a pole when Boteo Medrano punched him in the right arm, causing him to fall onto a concrete slab. Boteo Medrano then kicked Ruiz Lopez about 10 times, PBSO said. The report did not indicate what prompted the attack.
A property maintenance worker from the mobile-home park reviewed the video and identified Boteo Medrano as the attacker. The report indicates that Ruiz Lopez was conscious and speaking when deputies first arrived at the shopping plaza. He told deputies he fell and denied that anyone had done anything to harm him.
After being taken into custody, Boteo Medrano provided his version of the events from the day in question. The arrest report did not disclose what he told deputies.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Beating death leads to murder arrest of Greenacres-area man, 54
