POLK COUNTY, Fla. – A 19-year-old man is facing several charges after he “brutally stabbed” his former roommate to death in a Davenport home, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies said 67-year-old John Joseph Torneo, a retired nurse, was found dead Sunday in his home in the Polo Park West retirement community, near the intersection of Orange Lake, Osceola, and Polk counties. Torneo was well-liked in his neighborhood and was known for helping people who were down on their luck.
“Just a superhuman being and always wants to help people," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a Tuesday news conference.
According to a news release, a friend told detectives that he last saw the victim on Thursday, but hadn’t heard from him since. The friend had a key to the victim’s home, so he went to check on him, but according to the victim’s friend, the locks were recently changed at the victim’s home because a roommate was no longer permitted to reside there.
Investigators quickly identified the suspect as Julian Trevino, who had moved in with Torneo in September.
“Last Wednesday, he (Torneo) made this 19-year-old leave because he wasn’t helping pay the rent. He wasn’t helping keep up the house. So they put him out," Judd said.
The investigation found that the victim’s bank card was used by the suspect at a nearby pizza restaurant, where the suspect worked as a dishwasher, and at a convenience store.
Around 4:45 a.m. on Monday, the victim’s vehicle was seen traveling south on U.S. 27, and units began following behind it as it entered The Ridge neighborhood. The vehicle exited the neighborhood and crashed in a ditch in the area of Tank Toad and Teacher Lane, deputies said.
Trevino was captured after a short chase on foot. Torneo’s bank card was also found in Trevino’s possession.
According to Judd, after his arrest, Trevino confessed to breaking into Torneo’s home through a bathroom window, hiding in a closet, and attacking the victim with a butcher knife and a wine bottle and the suspect’s motive was to steal money.
Trevino was booked into the Polk County Jail on the following charges: first-degree murder (felony), armed robbery (felony), tampering with evidence in a felony (three counts, felony), armed burglary of a dwelling (first-degree felony), burglary of an occupied dwelling (first-degree felony), obtaining property by force (third-degree felony), criminal use of personal identification (third-degree felony), tampering with a victim (third-degree felony), grand theft from a dwelling (third-degree felony), grand theft motor vehicle (third-degree felony), fleeing to elude (third-degree felony), theft of a bank card (first-degree misdemeanor), fraudulent use of a bank card (first-degree misdemeanor), resisting without violence (first-degree misdemeanor), petit theft (second-degree misdemeanor), and driving without a valid license (second-degree misdemeanor).