Previous spat spurred stabbing, report says

HOLLYWOOD A man’s fatal stabbing in a park on the Hollywood Broadwalk was retaliation for a fight earlier that day, according to an arrest report.

Darren Lennon, 50, died at the hospital July 10, a day after hewas found bleeding with stab wounds to his abdomen at Charnow Park, 300 Connecticut St.

Clarence Michel Martin, 60, of Hollywood, who is facing a first-degreemurder charge, told detectives Lennon and another man named “Tarzan” intervened in an argument he was having with a woman and beat him up about an hour before the stabbing, the report said.

Lennon’s family said he was the kind of person to intervene if he saw someone in trouble. His niece, Ellen Lennon, remembers her uncle as a protector, who defended her when an old boyfriend hit her.

“He cared about everybody,” she said. “I didn’t want him to die alone.”

Lennon’s family said he had moved to South Florida from Zephyrhills three months ago to start a business repairing appliances and to be closer to his extended family. He was living at a friend’s house in Hollywood.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Ellen Lennon said.

The family couldn’t put together the money in time for a proper burial. All they could afford on short notice was a viewing of the body in a cardboard box and cremation, Ellen Lennon said. Martin

The family might hold a private memorial once the ashes are ready.

“We didn’t plan for this. It happened so suddenly,” she said. “We wanted to bury him across from my grandmother and it kills [my father] that he couldn’t have done that for his baby brother.”

Lennon said her uncle grew up in South Florida with his four siblings and was a huge Miami Dolphins fan. Despite his 6-foot-4 stature, he was mostly “a gentle giant,” she said.

The day of the attack, beachgoers gave police a description of the assailant, who fled on a bicycle down the Broadwalk. Witnesses identified Martin after police found him at Grant Street and North Ocean Drive. He was carrying a folding knife.

In 2014, Martin was charged with beating a man to death in aTri-Rail station parking lot in Hollywood. He represented himself and the charge was eventually dropped, records show.

During his first-appearance court hearing in the current case, Martin was ready to represent himself again after refusing the help of a public defender. He is being held without bond at the Broward main jail.

Martin’s record shows more than 20 arrests, and three convictions for battery, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Lennon is survived by his wife, Dawn Lennon, his two children, Darren Lennon Jr. and Cheyanne LennonKhurram, and four grandchildren. He is also survived by his father, three brothers and a sister, as well as several nieces and nephews.