VIERA, Fla. – Just over a year after 80-year-old Grady Wright was found dead in his Scottsmoor home, a grand jury issued an indictment Tuesday in his suspected homicide.
Richard Young, a 35-year-old Titusville tree trimmer, was already at Bridges of Cocoa serving a work release sentence on unrelated charges when the charges were handed down, News 6 partner Florida Today reported.
On Feb. 17 of last year, Wright 's friend began to worry about him when he didn't show up to dinner. Police were called and Wright was found dead. Autopsy results showed that his death was a homicide, according to police.
More details released said Wright was stabbed and his throat was slit.
Detectives said that Young had been trimming trees at Wright's home on the day he was killed. Witness statements and evidence were presented to the grand jury Tuesday, and charges were formally pressed.
"The fact that he was already in the Department of Corrections gave us plenty of time to make sure that we did all the testing that needed to be done, looked through all the information that we had and put this case together," Brevard County Sheriff's Office spokesman Tod Goodyear said.
No information on the motivation for the killing or the cause of death was released by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
Wright's next-door neighbor Vernie Driggers said she was friends for decades with the 80-year-old.
Driggers described her longtime friend as a godly man who was a member of the Scottsmoor First Baptist Church and helped with its food drives.
"Finally, there's going to be closure and we're going to know, who did this horrible, horrible thing to our friend? I would like to know why," Driggers said.
Young was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and is being held at the Brevard County Jail Complex on no bond status.