Deputies: Windermere man plotted romantic rival’s death
A Windermere man was jailed on a first-degree murder charge Thursday, accused by Volusia County deputies of carrying out a plot to kill a man in Deltona this week. Gregory Bender, 50, was booked into the Orange County Jail on a warrant from Volusia about 7 a.m. Thursday. He is being held without bail.
Detectives went to Patrick De La Cerda’s Deltona home about 11:35 a.m. Tuesday after he was found lying on his floor, fatally shot, the Sheriff ’s Office said.
The agency said its investigation “quickly” identified Bender as a potential suspect — Bender, officials said, was jealous of De La Cerda, 25, and a woman the young man was dating and had threatened them before.
Records show the woman, described in court records as Bender’s ex-girlfriend, had sought an injunction against him for stalking late last year, which was granted in December. De La Cerda did not have an injunction against Bender, but had set up cameras and a gate to protect his home, officials said.
The woman told investigators that she got calls from Bender while at work early Tuesday and grew worried as she tried to reach De La Cerda, who didn’t answer. By the time she arrived at his home, he was dead.
Meanwhile, De La Cerda’s father reported getting a “strange” call Tuesday morning from a man he believed to be Bender, who said he was outside De La Cerda’s gate with a package to deliver.
Detectives interviewed a woman who said she’d found a spiral notebook in Bender’s Windermere home that held a “detailed” plan to kill De La Cerda, using a package delivery as a pretense to get through his gate. Detectives searched Bender’s home and found the plan, officials said.
They also found ammunition that matched that used in the shooting, the Sheriff ’s Office said.