Friend: Man’s kindness is what cost him his life

Ocoee businessman was fatally beaten by tenant, police say

“It doesn’t make much sense. I think everyone’s angry. My dad didn’t deserve it — he looked out for everyone. That’s just what he did.” Kyle Gallegos, Jon Williams’ son

Jon Williams was known to help people down on their luck.

He’d give them work and a roof over their heads, if they needed it. That kindness ultimately cost him his life, those who knew him said.

Williams was beaten to death March 10 by a man he was letting stay in his house, according to Ocoee police. He knew Eric J. Turley through his pool construction business, said Williams’ longtime friend Mark Santoli.

“Jon was just the type of guy that wouldn’t turn his back on anyone,” Santoli said. “Jon just had a giant heart [and] it led to his demise”

Turley started living with Williams and his wife about a week before the incident. Jon Williams’ son, Kyle Gallegos, 25, said Turley was living there until he could move to Texas for a fresh start.

“It doesn’t make much sense,” he said. “I think everyone’s angry. My dad didn’t deserve it — he looked out for everyone. That’s just what he did.”

According to Ocoee police, Williams’ wife Tracey was on her way home when she got a call from Eric saying he got into a fight with her husband because he was being rude and riding him.

Turley then said he had killed Williams and told her not to come home, according to the arrest affidavit.

Tracey Williams rang the doorbell and she saw her husband lying on the floor when Turley opened the door, the affidavit said.

She ran to a neighbor’s house and screamed “he killed him,” police said. After the neighbor called 911, she returned to her home to give her husband CPR, police said.

Officers arrived to find Tracey Williams covered in blood and Turley standing in the yard. As police took Turley to jail, he claimed he and Jon Williams were fighting when he heard three shotgun pumps. Police did not say if officers found a shotgun.

“I’m a good man, you try to kill me you better be a good man,” he said, according to the affidavit. “I heard click click. I killed the coward.”

Turley also said Williams “deserved it,” the affidavit said.

Santoli said Turley’s words upset him.

“For him to call him a coward, it just blows my mind,” he said. “It’s disgusting. It’s really just a tragic event, a horrible loss.”

Williams grew up in Califor-

nia and joined the U.S. Air Force, those who knew him said. After being discharged in the early ’90s, he moved to the Orlando area with family.

He was in the pool cleaning business for more than 10 years and began Creative Waterworks to construct pools around 2005, his son

said. The business specialized in higher-end pools with rock sculptures and waterfalls, Gallegos said.

“He was was good at everything,” he said. “I always told him I wish I could have him in my pocket. He had a really creative mind.”

Santoli said Williams was his “go to guy” when he started a project. Williams was well-liked by his customers, said Santoli, who also works in construction.

“In a sea of mediocrity, in a sea of problems that those types of projects usually have, everybody was just so pleased and happy that he was part of the project,” he said.

Turley, who is at the Orange County Jail without bond on a second-degree murder charge, was on probation after he pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence and battery on an officer charges during a 2016 incident at a concert at the Amway Center, records

show.

He also was sentenced to three years in prison for battery on a pregnant person and felony driving under the influence in 2003, records show.

A relative declined to comment when reached by phone.

Santoli said he doesn’t understand why Turley would kill the man who was trying to help him.

“This guy repaid him by killing him,” he said.