Dillen Murray, 16, was arrested on Monday for allegedly beating a friend to death with an aluminum baseball bat
A teenage boy has beaten another teenager to death with a baseball bat in a jealous rage after he learned his victim had ‘relations’ with a girl who spurned his advances, a Florida sheriff said.
Dillen Murray, 16, lured his friend, 15-year-old Giovanni Diaz, to a wooded area in Lake Wales on Monday afternoon, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
Judd said that the boys had gone in the woods presumably to play.
Text messages obtained by Polk County Sheriff’s deputies indicate that Murray asked Diaz to go to the woods with him to smoke marijuana, according to WFLA-TV.
Diaz agreed and the two set a time for Monday afternoon to hang out in the wooded area.
While in the woods, Diaz is said to have brought up the topic of a girl he had been involved with romantically.
According to Judd, Murray was enraged when he learned that a few years ago Diaz had ‘relations’ with another girl that Murray had liked.
Murray alleged lured Giovanni Diaz (above), 15, into the woods and beat him to death after flying into a jealous rage. Murray learned Diaz had ‘relations’ with a girl who spurned his advances, a Florida sheriff said
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd showed reporters pictures posted on Dillen’s Facebook page. They included one of a bloody clown and another of a bloody knife
‘It so angered Dillen because he was “in love” with this young lady who didn’t like him at all,’ Judd said.
While in the woods, Murray grew so enraged when the topic came up that he allegedly began to hit Diaz with an aluminum tee-ball bat.
The force of the blows were so severe that the bat was dented and covered with blood, Sheriff Judd said.
The sheriff said Murray told investigators that he ‘wanted to make sure the victim was not going to talk bad about the girl he loves anymore.’
Judd said that just before 3:00pm on Monday, the sheriff’s office received a ‘frantic 911 call’ from Murray, who claimed he ‘hit his friend in self-defense with a bat.’
Deputies who were called to the scene found Diaz unresponsive with significant blunt force trauma to the head, face, chest and arms.
Investigators also discovered the dented, blood-stained bat.
Murray initially told investigators about ‘an elaborate scheme’ in which Diaz attacked him with the bat and his fists.
But when Murray was told there was no evidence of Diaz punching him or hitting him with the bat, he confessed to concocting the story, according to Judd.
Polk County Sheriff’s deputies who were called to a wooded area in Lake Wales, Florida (above) found Diaz unresponsive with significant blunt force trauma to the head, face, chest and arms
The sheriff also said investigators interviewed a witness who reported a conversation with Murray two days before the murder.
‘I wonder what it’s like – what does it feel like – to kill somebody,’ Murray is alleged to have told the witness.
‘Dillen then told us what we believe is the true story. And it was all crafted as a result of jealousy and anger,’ Sheriff Judd said.
Judd says the 16-year-old told a witness what he did, went home and called 911.
The witness found Diaz dead.
Murray told a deputy that ‘he whaled on’ Diaz and referred to him as a friend.
The teen has three previous battery charges and two were on Diaz.
‘From everything we’ve learned, Gio was a good boy,’ Sheriff Judd said.
‘He was not a troublemaker at home, he was not a troublemaker at school. On the other hand, you have Dillen.’
Judd showed reporters pictures posted on Dillen’s Facebook page. They included one of a bloody clown and another of a bloody knife.
Dillen has been charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of possession of marijuana.
A GoFundMe page was created to help Diaz’s family pay for his funeral.