POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd spoke Wednesday afternoon in Winter Haven to announce multiple arrests made in the wake of a crash investigation that quickly turned into a murder case involving two dead near Lakeland earlier this week.
On Monday, first responders attending to a Mercedes-Benz that crashed into a home discovered not only that the vehicle’s driver had been shot in the chest, but that there was another person beneath the wreck, according to the sheriff’s office.
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That second person was a bicyclist — later identified as 38-year-old Nathaniel Jones, Jr. — who was otherwise uninvolved in the situation and was riding through the neighborhood to his brother’s home when he was struck by the Mercedes-Benz. Both of those individuals died, the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff on Monday suggested that the driver of the Mercedes-Benz — identified as Davin Boutwell, 19 — had been shot over the two pounds of marijuana which were allegedly found inside of the vehicle, as well as a wad of cash.
“These other folks planned to rip him off, and we ended up with a shooting,” Judd said, adding that investigators managed to obtain video of the incident depicting others who were “all young,” some of whom “appeared to be kids.”
Come Wednesday, Judd was able to announce that the following six arrests had been made in the case:
- Alexander Zarion Colon-Martinez, 17, Lakeland
- Faces charges of attempted armed robbery, tampering with evidence and two counts of first-degree murder.
- David Yule, Jr., 15, Lakeland
- Faces charges of attempted armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a juvenile, violation of probation and two counts of first-degree murder.
- Anthony Scott Roush, 18, Lakeland
- Faces charges of attempted armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, violation of probation and two counts of first-degree murder.
- Kristian Xavier Guzman, 23, Lakeland
- Faces charges of attempted armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, two counts of negligent child abuse, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, violation of probation and two counts of first-degree murder.
- Jessica M. Chambers, 19, Lakeland
- Faces charges of accessory after the fact to a capital felony, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, false information to law enforcement in a felony investigation and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.
- Isabella Brooke Farley, 21, Lakeland
- Faces charges of accessory after the fact to a capital felony, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, two counts of negligent child abuse, false information to law enforcement in a felony investigation and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.
News 6 is naming and showing all six subjects due to the circumstances of the case.
“There’s no winners here. There’s absolutely no winners. The oldest one’s only 23. This one’s 15, 18, 17, 21, 19. Teenagers. Kids. They’re kids, but they were doing adult, mean, bad crime,” Judd said Wednesday.
Inviting attendees to watch surveillance video recorded the day of the shooting, Judd described three subjects seen walking to where a shot was allegedly fired off screen. Of those three — identified as Colon-Martinez, Yule and Roush — Judd said that Colon-Martinez was armed with a 9mm handgun and Yule was concealing a shotgun in his pantleg while it’s believed Roush may have had an AR-style weapon on him at the time.
After what Judd called a gunshot was heard in the video, a Mercedes-Benz rushed across the frame. Boutwell, its driver, had just been shot through his chest and was attempting to escape, leading to the crash moments later, according to the sheriff.
“You can hear two hits. You can hear when he hits the bicycle — the electric bicycle — and then hits the house and he pushes him into the house and underneath the car,” Judd said. “(...) They all flee. Alex goes back to the apartment that’s just off the view here, picks up the shotgun off of the porch, and he takes his hoodie off, wraps that around the shotgun, and dumps it behind the convenience store at Reynolds Road.”
Judd described Kristian Guzman as the “mastermind” in the incident, accused of planning the robbery with the juveniles as easy cover.
“Well, Kristian knows that, ‘Hey, if this is a robbery, it’ll probably go easier on the 15 and 17-year-old because they’re juveniles.’ At least he thinks that,” Judd said. “The 19-year-old victim driving the white Mercedes — did you hear what I said? Only 19 — has sold Kristian Guzman marijuana before, so there was no reason for our 19-year-old victim to be ‘boo’d up’ about selling dope, freaked out about it, because he’s sold to Kristian before. So they set up the meeting at this intersection.”
Heading out as a group after noon Monday, Guzman allegedly dropped off Colon-Martinez, Yule and Roush before waiting in the vehicle — with Chambers and Farley along for the ride — as the attempted robbery was to take place. Judd said that Chambers was holding a 1-year-old as Farley held a 4-year-old — both of them Guzman’s children — with the sheriff going on to describe Chambers as the 19-year-old girlfriend of 17-year-old Colon-Martinez.
After running away from the scene and regrouping for the most part at Guzman’s home, Judd said the realization that at least one person had been killed began to dawn on the members of the group who made it back.
“Our suspect, the shooter, said, ‘Hey, I crashed out and shot the guy.’ Kristian tells Jessica, ‘Take your boyfriend and get him out of my house. Get him out of here.’ So Jessica takes Alex back to the Motel 6 on Highway 98 North in Lakeland, where he lives with his mother,” Judd said. “The investigation unfolds and we encounter Alex and his mother at Lakeland Regional Health. They’re there checking on her mother who is apparently being treated or may be in the hospital. The mother tells us, ‘My son didn’t have anything to do with any of this,’ and we showed her the video clip of her son. She immediately identified him, started hitting him and saying, ‘I told you to stay away from those people in that area,’ and he said spontaneously to his mama, ‘I didn’t shoot anybody,’ to which she said, ‘It didn’t matter if you shot or not, you were there.'"
Out of everyone involved in the case, Yule was supposed to be on house arrest while Guzman, Roush and Boutwell were all on felony probation, the sheriff said.
While the hidden shotgun was eventually found, the firearm used to shoot Boutwell has yet to be recovered, according to the sheriff’s office.
Judd said that investigators have petitioned the State Attorney’s Office to charge all six subjects as adults in the deadly incident.
Watch Wednesday’s news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.