St. Petersburg man arrested after man found dead during welfare check
Police have arrested a St. Petersburg man on a second-degree murder charge more than a week after officers found another man dead during a welfare check.
Jovante Deshawn Darling, 31, was arrested Tuesday in the death of Timothy Joseph Pustelak, 49, the St. Petersburg Police Department said in a news release.
Just before 8 p.m. on April 1, officers responded to the Marisol Vista Apartments on the 10000 block of 11th Street North after Pustelak’s girlfriend called police to conduct a welfare check. She was out of town and was concerned because she had not been able to contact him, the news release states.
When officers arrived, they found Pustelak had been stabbed to death in his apartment, the news release states. Through further investigation, detectives learned that Darling and Pustelak got into an argument that led to the murder.
Police did not say what the argument was about, and no other details were immediately released.
Darling made headlines in January 2011 after his girlfriend at the time, 18-year-old Meyhante Townsend, was fatally shot in the bedroom of a Clearwater home.
The shooting was deemed accidental, but Darling was charged with illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
According to an arrest report, Darling, who also was 18 at the time, placed a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun on the edge of the bed in a room he was occupying at the time. When Townsend lay down on the bed and tried to move the gun, it discharged, striking her in the head.
Darling told police he got the gun “off the street” and admitted to placing it on the bed and being in the room at the time Townsend was shot, the report states.
Darling, who had been previously been convicted of motor vehicle theft, pleaded guilty to the weapons charge and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison. He was released in 2021.
Later that year, he was arrested on a probation violation charge for breaking a court-imposed curfew, records show. He pleaded guilty and a judge revoked his probation and sentenced him to 13 months in prison. He was released in December 2022.
About a year later, Darling was arrested on charges including burglary and fleeing police officers, but prosecutors dropped the charges, court records show. He is currently facing drug and weapons charges, as well as a charge of obstructing or resisting an officer without violence. He has pleaded not guilty through a public defender.
