Months of tracking lead PBSO to an arrest in man's 2020 fatal shooting near Palm Springs
WEST PALM BEACH — A 33-year-old West Palm Beach man is facing a second-degree murder charge after his arrest this week in connection to the shooting death of a 54-year-old man in 2020.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputies took Vern Hanson Jr. into custody Thursday, saying he pursued the older man by car on the morning of Oct. 14, 2020, and fired shots into his vehicle, which crashed along Forest Hill Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach.
PBSO investigators did not disclose the name of the man who died, saying his family had invoked its right to privacy under a 2018 state constitutional amendment modeled on California's Marsy's Law. The amendment allows crime victims to request that their names be withheld from public reports.
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During a hearing Friday at the Palm Beach County Jail, County Judge Ted Booras ordered Hanson to be held without bail. He also assigned Hanson a public defender. As a policy, the county Public Defender's Office does not comment on open cases.
During the investigation, Hanson denied having any involvement in the shooting and said witness who placed him at the scene were mistaken.
Besides second-degree murder with a firearm, Hanson also faces charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and shooting into an occupied vehicle, court records show.
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Investigators say the deadly 2020 confrontation followed an argument during a failed drug deal.
According to an arrest report made public Friday, deputies in suburban West Palm Beach responded to a shots-fired call shortly after 11 a.m. that day and found a vehicle crashed near Forest Hill and Tucker Road, about a mile east of Military Trail.
The 54-year-old man was found dead in the driver's seat. A wounded man who deputies learned was a passenger in the vehicle was found along the 3300 block of Forest Hill, near the Palm Beach County School District headquarters in Palm Springs.
The man told investigators he and the driver were at the traffic signal at Forest Hill and Military when another vehicle approached and at least one person started shooting.
Investigators say a person submitted an anonymous tip that the shooter lived in an apartment in the Summit Villas community just north of the scene. A rental contract and a vehicle found on the property belonged to a person related to Hanson, the arrest report said.
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The surviving shooting victim identified Hanson as the person with whom his acquaintance argued on the morning of the shooting. One witness told investigators Hanson complained of being robbed during a drug transaction moments before he climbed into his car and followed another vehicle.
Investigators said data collected from nearby cellphone towers placed Hanson near the Summit Villas on the morning of the shooting, the report said.
Detectives learned in the weeks after the shooting that Hanson had moved to another residence in West Palm Beach. They obtained a warrant and a search of that location found a Smith and Wesson 40-caliber gun, the report said. However, investigators determined the gun was not the one used in the homicide.
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 Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm man faces murder charge in 2020 fatal shooting near Palm Springs
