Prosecutors revealed they will be seeking the death penalty for a man accused of murdering a Florida couple who were on their home from Daytona Beach Bike Week.
The state of Florida intends to seek the death penalty against the man accused of violently killing two people who were on their way home from Daytona Beach Bike Week, according to the state attorney's office.
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Benjamin Jaquaric Antonio Bascom, 28, is on trial this week charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Carlos Cruz-Echevarria, 60, on Nov. 11, 2017. He is also charged with witness tampering because prosecutors said he tried to get his girlfriend not to help investigators in the case.
“These were not chance meetings between the defendant and local prostitutes, but planned encounters all ending in a similar fashion, with the murder of the prostitute and abandonment of her body in a remote location,” wrote Assistant State Attorney Andrew J. Urbanak in Volusia County.
Hayes will have two trials, one for the Daytona killings and one for the Palm Beach County murder. But it hasn’t been determined which will happen first or when.
Prosecutors in Volusia say it is critical to their case to show jurors how Hayes was finally caught because his DNA was found on a 2016 victim in Palm Beach County, more than a decade after the Daytona Beach killings.