FL- Sex offender killed outside game arcade

11-18-2008 Florida:

A registered sex offender from North Miami was shot and killed outside a video game arcade in Lake Worth.

A North Miami man shot and mortally wounded Sunday night outside a children's amusement center in Lake Worth was a registered sex offender, according to state records.

Edner Eustache, 27, was shot at least twice in the ''upper part of his body'' at about 8:30 p.m. after a fist fight outside Fun Depot, 2003 10th Ave. North, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.

Eustache was flown to Delray Medical Center, where he died, said Teri Barbera, a sheriff's office spokeswoman.

Witnesses told deputies that three men were involved in the fight in the parking lot, and that two drove away in a white van and green car.

In February 2002, Eustache registered in Broward County as a sex offender who had assaulted a minor, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.

In three arrests in Miami-Dade and Broward counties since December 2007, Eustache was charged with failure to obey state registration laws for sexual offenders. In the case of a Dec. 1 arrest by Miami-Dade police, he pleaded guilty to the charge, records show.

It was not immediately clear what Eustache was doing outside Fun Depot, where young people gather to play video games and laser tag.

Fun Depot general manager Eddie Naphan said he watched security camera footage Monday morning but did not see anyone who looked like the victim enter or leave the park's arcade in the hour before the shooting.

Naphan said the security cameras showed a car sitting by a trash bin in Fun Depot's parking lot.

''You can't see anything but headlights,'' he said.

As detectives paced outside Fun Depot, patrons continued to hit baseballs in the batting cages, which overlooked the crime scene.

''I've been around here for 20 years, and I can tell you we've never had an incident like this near this place,'' said Naphan, whose father opened Fun Depot in 1988.

Police asked anyone with information about the shooting to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 800-458-8477.
..News Source.. by MICHAEL LaFORGIA, Palm Beach Post

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Man charged in 2008 slaying outside Fun Depot in Lake Worth

11-23-2009 Florida:

Three men, including a registered sex offender, drive from Broward County to a Lake Worth amusement park for a robbery, according to authorities.

Their intended victim, in a struggle, kills one of the assailants with his own gun.

The other two return to Broward, where they kidnap their dead colleague's girlfriend and her 3-month-old daughter and are arrested.

Now a year later, under the state's "felony murder" law, one of them has been brought to Palm Beach County, charged with his alleged accomplice's death.

The second is in the Broward County Jail, awaiting transfer on the same charges.

Ralph Gutierrez, 29, of Lauderdale Lakes, was booked Wednesday afternoon into the Palm Beach County Jail on a warrant issued March 9, documents show.

He is charged with second-degree felony murder with a firearm and attempted armed robbery in the Nov. 16, 2008, death of Edner Eustache, 27, of North Miami at the Fun Depot.

Gutierrez was transferred from the Broward County Jail, where he has been since his arrest the day of the slaying.

The second defendant is not identified in a Palm Beach County Sheriff's report.

But Broward documents identify him as Dante Coats, 24, of Parkland, and confirm he faces the same Palm Beach County charges as Gutierrez.

A bond hearing for Gutierrrez is set for Friday before Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen Miller at the main courthouse.

According to the Palm Beach County sheriff's affidavit, Gutierrez, Eustache and the third person, Coats, came from Broward County, driving the company van of Coats' father.

Aaron Bazan, 27, of West Palm Beach, told investigators Gutierrez, a distant cousin, called to say he was on the way to the Fun Depot, at 2003 10th Ave. North.

Bazan said when he met Gutierrez near a dumpster outside the park, he started to shake hands, but Gutierrez grabbed his hand and the other two men stepped out.

One, armed with a handgun -- the report doesn't say which — demanded Bazan's wallet.

Bazan said that as the two men tried to rifle his pockets, he got hold of the gun and he and Eustache struggled and went down.

The gun went off and Bazan crawled out from under Eustache, ran to his car, and drove off with his girlfriend, the report said.

Eustache, struck twice in the upper body, was taken to Delray Medical Center, where he died the next morning.

Gutierrez and Coats drove back to Broward County, where they rifled Eustache's hotel room and demanded his girlfriend say where he might have money.

They then grabbed the girlfriend, Darline Gabriel, and her three-month-old daughter Cally, and forced them to another hotel, saying they feared authorities would track them at the first one.

But the woman was able to call the front desk and have the clerk call police.

The Palm Beach County report does not say if the child was Eustache's daughter.

Inquiries to Plantation police for details were unsuccessful.

Broward prosecutors say Gutierrez and Coats were each charged with two counts of armed kidnapping and one of attempted robbery with a firearm, and Coats with carrying a concealed firearm.

Gutierrez later confessed to the Fun Depot robbery, the Palm Beach County report said.

Attempts to reach Bazan today were unsuccessful.

According to state law, if someone dies during the commission of a felony, any of the people who perpetrated the original crime can be charged in his death.

Jesse Watson, a manager at the park, said today he could not comment because the general manager was out of town.

According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement Records, in February 2002, Eustache registered in Broward County as a sex offender who had assaulted a minor. ..Source.. by Eliot Kleinberg