Killer ruled insane, avoids guilty verdict
Relatives of man who was stabbed to death are disappointed
After a West Boca restaurant owner was stabbed to death as customers watched in horror, his widow hoped the killer would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Instead, Maria Karaloukas had no choice but to accept a judge’s ruling: Ex-dishwasher Tilus Lebrun is not guilty by reason of insanity in the March 13, 2014, slaying of his boss at Jimmy the Greek Taverna.
The 47-year-old former Pompano Beach man will be confined to a state mental health facility, with his condition to be periodically monitored by the court — and victim Dimitrios Karaloukas’ loving family.
“He’s going to be locked up indefinitely,” Maria Karaloukas told reporters. “Let’s hope and pray God keeps him in there and keeps him locked up for the rest of his life. That’s all I ask for.”
Her husband was sitting near the front of the restaurant at 7:30 p.m. when Lebrun suddenly walked up to him carrying a large knife and stabbed him, three times in his left side and once in the back, an arrest report said.
A co-worker, Jose Romero of Boca Raton, also was attacked and injured. He survived, but Karaloukas, 61, died about an hour after the stabbing in the packed dining room.
Deputies soon found Lebrun wearing a black work apron and carrying a knife nearby in the 8000 block of Glades Road near Florida’s Turnpike.
Placed in the back of a cruiser, Lebrun re-
portedly asked the deputy if he was Haitian, and when the deputy replied yes, Lebrun gave a confession in Creole: “I killed him because he took my photograph on March 2 and posted it on the Internet.”
Maria Karaloukas said there’s no proof of that.
“There is no picture,” she said.
Karaloukas says she’s disappointed Lebrun won’t be considered guilty under the law for the murder of her husband of 24 years, and an attempted firstdegree murder charge concerning Romero.
“We need to change the laws,” Karaloukas said. “A man can commit murder and almost commit a second murder, and to be not guilty due to insanity is insane.”
The family was frustrated as Lebrun’s case was held up for years in Palm Beach County’s mental health court. Finally, last August, a judge ruled that Lebrun was mentally competent to stand trial.
But after Lebrun’s lawyers earlier this year announced plans to use an insanity defense before a jury, prosecutors arranged for a psychologist to examine Lebrun. That expert wound up agreeing with the defense that Lebrun was legally insane at the time of the killing.
Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes said those medical reports were sufficient to find Lebrun not guilty by reason of insanity. He then told Maria Karaloukas and other family members he was sorry for their loss.
Lebrun, a father of three from Haiti, was hired at the restaurant several weeks before the tragedy.
Jimmy the Greek Taverna closed for 10 days after the killing and has remained in business with a loyal following.
“I have to keep my husband’s legacy going,” Karaloukas said, recalling his generous nature. “He was wonderful. There is nobody out there that had a bigger heart.”