Man Left Dying On Side Of Road In Haines City; 3 Orlando Men Arrested

HAINES CITY, FL — Three Orlando men have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of an Orange County man in unincorporated Haines City on Sept. 24.

Arrested were Felix Jomar Agosto Velazquez, 25, of Orlando; Joel Javier Ortega, 29, of Orlando; and Bryan Jose Colon Deleon, 26, of Orlando. All three men were arrested in Orlando and booked into the Orange County Jail, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. They've been charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.

"The victim was shot and left to die in a very rural part of the county," Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said. "With very little information to start with, our homicide detectives were able to determine all three of his killers, and get them charged in about 24 hours. Our prayers go out to the victim’s family and, hopefully, they’ll see justice carried out swiftly against these three murderers.”

Deputies were originally dispatched to the area of Lake Marion Creek Road and Midway Road at around 12:35 a.m. Sept. 24 after receiving a call about a man stumbling on the road, covered in blood.

The 26-year-old man was found by deputies lying next to the road with multiple gunshot wounds.

He was taken to the hospital where he died a few hours later.

Several shell casings were recovered at the scene and detectives began looking for a black Mercedes that was reported to have been in the area.

The Mercedes was soon identified, and that led to the identification of Velazquez, Ortega and Deleon who were friends of the victim, and had spent a lot of time together in recent days.

Polk County detectives searched a storage unit belonging to Velazquez and discovered that he visited there less than seven hours after the shooting. Detectives found ammunition in the storage unit that matched the ammunition found at the crime scene and firearms, which were capable of firing that type of ammunition.

During interviews with the detectives, each man confirmed they were together with the victim in the black Mercedes-Benz, and near the area where the shooting occurred, but they refused to provide additional information.