Second suspect arrested in stabbing of construction supervisor at Hillsborough home
Deputies have arrested the second of two suspects in connection to the robbery and fatal stabbing of a drywall supervisor at a home under construction in Hillsborough County last month.
Shamek Carter-Bowick, 23, faces charges of first-degree murder, robbery and armed burglary in the Nov. 25 slaying of Manuel De Jesus Ochoa Portillo, 37, who had been working as the supervisor of a drywall crew when he was attacked, records show.
Carter-Bowick was arrested Thursday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, by deputies with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, according to a news release from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
An arrest affidavit for Carter-Bowick was not immediately available Friday, but the Tampa Bay Times previously reported details of the investigation laid out in the arrest affidavit of Carter-Bowick’s co-defendant, Ja’Quan Javontae Glymp, who was arrested the day after the stabbing.
Glymp’s affidavit references a second unidentified suspect. A spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that Carter-Bowick is that suspect.
Deputies responded at 8:32 a.m. that morning to a 911 call reporting a stabbing at a home under construction at 9241 Rock Harbour Way. The home is in the Easthaven development off Harney Road, just east of Interstate 75.
Investigators noted blood throughout the first floor of the home. A co-worker of Ochoa’s told detectives that he had heard a scream while he was working upstairs. When the co-worker looked out the window, he saw Ochoa in the street, holding his left side.
First responders found Ochoa suffering from multiple stab wounds on his upper body. He died shortly after being taken to Tampa General Hospital.
The next day, deputies arrested Glymp, 34, on multiple charges including first-degree murder during a robbery.
Video surveillance from a camera on a nearby home showed a dark-colored Mercedes backing into a driveway near the home where Ochoa was stabbed about 10 minutes before the 911 call.
The video shows the driver, determined by investigators to be Glymp, and a passenger get out of the car. Both suspects are seen wearing orange work vests, hard hats and white face masks in the video. Glymp’s hard hat is white, and the other man wears a blue one, the affidavit states.
Detectives found white face masks, and one white and one blue hard hat, inside the garage of the construction site where Ochoa was stabbed. The white hard hat and the masks had a substance that tested positive for blood.
A fingerprint on the white hard hat was Glymp’s, according to the affidavit.
Glymp’s girlfriend, who was in the Mercedes at the time of the traffic stop, told investigators she overheard the second suspect — the man the sheriff’s office has identified as Carter-Bowick — tell Glymp that he’d “stabbed” someone and that “he wouldn’t hold still.” The girlfriend said the man had blood on his hands and clothing.
Records show Carter-Bowick was being held Friday in the Cumberland County Detention Center in Fayetteville.
“With the arrest of the second suspect in this homicide case, we can offer this grieving family the closure they deserve,” Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a news release.
Times staff writer Tony Marrero contributed to this report.
