MELBOURNE, Fla. – A 40-year-old man was arrested this week nearly three years after a man was found shot to death at a Melbourne apartment complex.
Police arrived at the Park at Via Terrossa apartments near Dairy Road on Nov. 16, 2017 around noon after witnesses reported a man being shot in the neck in the parking lot.
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The victim, Devon Sannito-Griesi, was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries.
The victim’s girlfriend told detectives she was worried Donta Jermaine Childs, 40, of Melbourne, may have tried to rob Sannito-Griesi during a marijuana sale.
Using digital forensics and DNA evidence from Childs’ car that was seen leaving the shooting scene, according to the report, detectives were able to secure an arrest warrant for Childs in 2017 for a violation of his probation.
However, since that warrant, Childs had not been heard from or seen by his wife, the mother of his young children, according to the arrest report. Childs’ wife told detectives he was acting nervous and distraught the last time she saw him. She dropped him off at the Ron Jon’s Surf Shop on Nov. 17 and that was the last she saw of him, according to the arrest warrant.
Childs was previously featured on the Melbourne police “Find ‘Em Friday” social media campaign in an attempt to find suspects at large.
Childs was arrested on Tuesday after nearly three years at large, according to Melbourne police.
Childs was booked into the Brevard County Jail Tuesday on charges of first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and robbery with a firearm.