A 15-year-old boy from Florida allegedly held a man hostage at gunpoint, stole $ 1,000 and shot him to death, according to authorities
The victim, a 37-year-old Fort Lauderdale real estate agent named Stefano Barbosa, was on his way to a meeting with tenants on February 1 when a masked and armed teenager approached him, police said.
Barbosa was forced, at gunpoint, to drive to a nearby bank and withdraw $ 1,000 from an ATM in separate withdrawals of $ 500, according to investigators, who reviewed bank documents.
(Broward County Sheriff’s Department)
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The suspect, Henry Lee Lewis III, allegedly ordered Barbosa to drive a few kilometers away and then shot him in the chest at close range, according to court records. The car crashed off the road, through a fence and into a tree, and the suspect reportedly escaped on foot.
A nearby owner heard the accident and called the police, who found Barbosa unanswered due to a gunshot wound. Later, an autopsy considered death a homicide.
School officials were able to identify Lewis from a surveillance video, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported, and investigators looking for his phone reportedly found a story about the victim in his browser history.
He has a criminal record that goes back to a firearm charge when he was just 12, according to the newspaper.
Lewis was already in custody on unrelated charges when the Fort Lauderdale police identified him as a suspect in Barbosa’s murder.
The teenager faces charges as an adult of second-degree murder and armed robbery.
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A judge ordered him to be detained without bail.
Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor said in a statement that the decision to sue the 15-year-old as an adult had to do with considering maximum punishment.
“This type of decision is very difficult to make, but I believe that this is the right decision in this case and under these circumstances,” he said. “This young man’s problems are so significant that they require treatment, help and services beyond what the juvenile justice system can offer at this time. If this case were to be treated as a juvenile affair, he would have to be released from the juvenile justice system at age 18. “
He added that a juvenile charge would limit the punishment to just three years in prison, and post-release supervision would end when the suspect turns 21.
Lewis pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
Barbosa was born in Campinas, Brazil, and graduated from Miami Palmetto High School in 2001, according to an obituary. He studied at Penn State and returned to Florida to start his career in real estate. He liked diving, sailing, cycling and aviation.