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2 face drug charges after Melbourne triple slaying

Third grow house found nearby

BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE
FLORIDA TODAY

Investigators may never know what caused 49-year-old Juan Torres to kill two relatives and then shoot himself in a Wednesday morning rampage that sent the upscale, quiet community on Turtle Mound Road into a panic.

It's an area known more for horses and luxury homes than shootouts and the marijuana grow operations authorities said the dead men were apparently running inside two homes.

A third grow house was found on nearby Harlock Road. Melbourne police Cmdr. Ron Bell said officers Thursday morning arrested Alfredo Garcia, 43, and Yunior Martinez, 28, both listed as residents of the home. Each was charged with trafficking in cannabis, cultivation of cannabis and possession of cannabis with intent to distribute. They are being held without bond.

Police said Garcia was related to one of the slain men, Omar Garcia.

The terror for the neighborhood began about 10 a.m. Wednesday when Torres chased his cousin-by-marriage, 24-year-old Omar Garcia, from Garcia's home at 3681 Turtle Mound Road. They ran across the road and into Jeannette Ruth's back yard.

"There's a guy running around with a shotgun around my house -- there's one guy chasing another guy, shooting at him," Ruth told a 9-1-1 dispatcher. "He shot somebody. My dad said he shot somebody, and they're lying in my yard. He's dead. He's lying in my yard."

Six members of the horrified family from South Africa could only stare from inside the home and wait for police officers to arrive more than eight minutes after they first called.

Back across the street, neighbor Neil Plotkin saw a man in a windbreaker jacket -- authorities said it was Torres -- jump into a Honda Ridgeline pickup and speed out of the driveway.

About a mile south, Torres parked the truck in the driveway of 4000 Lake Washington Road, which is owned by a relative, Luis Acevedo.

Police said Torres went inside the home and found his brother-in-law, 36-year-old Elieser S. Alfonso, near a screened-in back porch. Investigators said Thursday that Torres shot Alfonso in the upper torso and his brother-in-law fell to the floor just inside a sliding glass door leading to the kitchen. Then Torres put the gun to his own chest and pulled the trigger. He was found on the porch.

"Everything points to him having a self-inflicted wound," said Brevard County Sheriff's Homicide Agent Carlos Reyes, who said he didn't know what caused the fight.

Inside both homes, investigators found massive amounts of drugs. Melbourne police said the house on Turtle Mound was used to create methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant, along with marijuana. The house on Lake Washington was used as a grow house for marijuana.

Reyes said the three men primarily lived in Miami, where their wives reside. He said he spoke to Torres' wife Wednesday, when she was about to file a missing person's report on her husband. She was devastated.

"The family was distraught and shocked when I talked to them," Reyes said.

He declined to speculate as to whether the men were running drugs from Brevard County to Miami or selling them locally. But he added that the men carefully chose the locations of their drug operations, paying nearly $800,000 for the two properties. The Turtle Mound and Lake Washington areas are known for low crime rates, spacious lots and neighbors who are too far away to be too nosy.

"It's very strategic to come to these nicer areas," Reyes said. "They could come once a week and check on it. They close the gates, put the Christmas lights on . . . who knows how long it's gone on or how long it would've gone on without this family feud?"

A giant inflatable snowman stood sentry at the Lake Washington home as Sheriff's crime scene investigators, Melbourne police and K-9 officers and a locksmith arrived Thursday morning. Red and green candy canes lined a front-yard flowerbed, and a jolly St. Nick festooned the front door.

But, investigators said, it was all a facade to make neighbors think the house was occupied by residents celebrating the holidays. Inside, there were no Christmas tree or wrapped presents -- only marijuana plants, heat lamps and a watering system.

In the backyard, detectives found two other pieces of the charade. An animal services officer led a young, chestnut-colored horse into a waiting trailer. A chocolate and white paint horse whinnied as she followed.

Reyes said deputies fed the horses Wednesday and Thursday and they appeared to be very hungry. They will be housed at a temporary shelter until the family claims them or they can be put up for adoption.

Contact Moore at 480-5166 or kmoore@floridatoday.com.