WINTER HAVEN -- Polk sheriff's deputies have two suspects in custody, in connection with a murder March 26th just outside the city limits of Bartow.
Sheriff Grady Judd says 28-year-old Wesley Andino is charged with first degree murder. His girlfriend, 26-year-old Adriana Oyola Del Valle, is charged with the crime of accessory to a capital felony. Both were arrested in Delaware earlier this month after quickly leaving their home.
Judd says 34-year-old Benjamin Mason III was shot to death while riding a dirt bike, in what he calls an ambush murder. According to the sheriff, Oyola Del Valle said she had found an orange and white dirt bike on Facebook Marketplace and placed a $100 deposit with the owner to buy it. She changed her mind but the owner wouldn't give her back the deposit. Andino and Oyola Del Valle were driving around and spotted Mason, riding a bike he had borrowed from his uncle. They yelled at him but he drove off, then Andino shot at him. Mason crashed and at first deputies thought they were dealing with an accident, but hospital staff discovered a bullet wound.
Judd also announced information on the deaths of two men in his office's custody.
The sheriff says a man who got into a scuffle with his deputies didn't die from the fight. Deputies say 58-year-old Maximino Lopez-Gonzalez was pouring chemicals on a bedridden woman in Lakeland early Monday morning, threatening to kill her. Judd says he fought twice with arresting deputies, biting one and kicking another in the groin. Paramedics took Lopez-Gonzalez to a hospital but he died on the way. Deputies found meth and Judd says it appears he died from an "excited delirium."
A preliminary autopsy shows Doratio Martinez-Castro died of internal injuries from a Saturday night head-on collision on U-S 17-92 in Haines City. Martinez-Castro was in jail Monday for a DUI-Manslaughter charge, after getting treatment for the crash. He became unresponsive and passed away at a Sebring hospital. Polk Sheriff Grady Judd says Martinez-Castro was on his third illegal entry into the U-S, after being deported twice. Judd says if Martinez-Castro had stayed at home, he'd still be alive, and so would the other driver.
Photo: Canva-PCSO