Eliot Kleinberg
The Palm Beach Post, Fla.
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Prosecutors have filed murder charges against two of the three Palm Beach County men who authorities say took part in the murder of an off-duty firefighter near Fort Lauderdale last month, hours after shooting at a suspected drug dealer in Lantana.
But they have opted not to charge the third man with murder.
A grand jury indicted Torrey J. Holston, 19, and Jose E. Garcia Romero, 20, both of Greenacres, in the Oct. 19 death of Christopher Randazzo in the town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office announced late Thursday.
Prosecutors also charged Marco Rico, 32, of suburban West Palm Beach with being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and with criminal conspiracy.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office initially had charged Rico with first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm and “criminal attempt.” The State Attorney’s Office would not say Friday why it decided not to pursue those charges.
Prosecutors said they had not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty against Holston and Garcia Romero. Those two also are charged with armed robbery and criminal conspiracy.
Garcia Romero and Holston are in the Palm Beach County Jail. Rico is in the Broward Jail. All are being held without bail.
None of the three had been arrested before for a violent act, authorities said.
Lantana police have said that, on the evening of Oct. 18, Rico’s former girlfriend called him to the Motel 6 at West Lantana Road and Interstate 95, where she was staying with a man. Rico showed up with Holston and Garcia Romero, and Holston fired four shots at the other man, missing him, police have said.
Holton and Garcia are charged with attempted murder in the Motel 6 incident and Lantana police have said they intend to seek those charges against Rico.
After the shooting, police have said, the former girlfriend then got in the car with the three men and another woman, and the five drove to Broward County.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office has said Holston shot Randazzo, a firefighter and paramedic working for the Coral Springs Fire Department, Authorities found his body about 6 a.m. Oct. 19 outside a hotel.
The Broward arrest warrants that BSO has been made public provide little detail about the confrontation with the firefighter. But they say Holston shot Randazzo. The three men took Randazzo’s cellphone, red Nike sneakers, pocketknife and car keys, as well as his wallet, which had $55 inside, the reports said.
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