Suspect in killings found in Clermont

The Puerto Rican fugitive, wanted as an accomplice, was working at a Wal-Mart.

Christine Dellert | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 4, 2006




TAVARES -- A Puerto Rican fugitive who fled to Central Florida to escape murder charges was arrested early Wednesday morning at her Clermont home, authorities said.

U.S. marshals in Puerto Rico and Orlando had searched for Josie Beth Perez-Felix, 18, since she was charged last year as an accomplice in two gang-related killings in Humacao, Puerto Rico, on the east side of the island.

"She was not the trigger person, but she was there when it took place and then fled," Deputy U.S. Marshal Jim Disbrow said Thursday.

Perez-Felix had been living with a relative on Wilkinson Drive in Clermont and worked stocking shelves at the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter, officials said.

Last month, the U.S. Marshal's Office in Puerto Rico received a tip about Perez-Felix's whereabouts and teamed up with Orlando deputies to find her, Disbrow said.

"It was totally by coincidence that we saw her the day before [the arrest] at the Wal-Mart," he said.

Four deputies from the U.S. Marshal's drug trafficking and fugitive teams arrested Perez-Felix when she arrived home about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday after working the midnight shift, Disbrow said.

She was later booked into the Lake County Jail, Lake sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Christie Mysinger said. Perez-Felix will be at the jail until she is extradited to Puerto Rico, probably next week, Mysinger added.

Perez-Felix's Clermont relative could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In Puerto Rico, she will face two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, conspiracy and weapons law violations, said Rafael Escobar, a criminal investigator for the U.S. Marshal's Puerto Rico Fugitive Task Force.

Law-enforcement agents in Puerto Rico already had arrested the suspected shooter in the killing of two gang members in April 2005, Disbrow said.

Perez-Felix was one of nine people involved in the confrontation, Disbrow said.

"It was a drug deal gone bad," Disbrow said. The two members of another gang -- not Perez-Felix's -- were killed and another two were wounded, according to a report from Puerto Rico.

Authorities said they are still looking for one of the gang members with Perez-Felix during the shooting incident, but they think he is on the run in Puerto Rico.

Christine Dellert can be reached at cdellert@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5917.



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