Second triple-slaying suspect is denied bail
Marcus Steward, 25, faces multiple counts in Feb. 5 triple shooting.
Marcus Steward is the second person to be charged with murder in Super Bowl Sunday killings at a home in Jupiter.
JUPITER — The second man arrested in the Super Bowl Sunday triple homicides won’t be leaving the Palm Beach County Jail, Judge Ted Booras ruled Wednesday.
Marcus Steward, 25, faces three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and a car-theft charge in the Feb. 5 Mohawk Street fatal shootings of Kelli J. Doherty, Sean P. Henry and Brandi El-Salhy. He refused to appear in court Wednesday morning, and Booras denied him bail.
Charles Vorpagel, who rented the home where the shootings happened, escaped the gunfire alive. He was arrested soon after the fatal shootings on federal gun and drug charges. He pleaded guilty to those charges Wednesday and could face the maximum sentence of life in prison on gun and drug-trafficking charges.
Vorpagel’s attorney, Robert Franklin, asked Judge James M. Hopkins to recommend that Vorpagel be moved to the Federal Detention Center in Miami from the Palm Beach County Jail. Franklin said Vorpagel has had contact with Christopher Vasata, the first person arrested on first-degree murder charges in the killings, and he said he is afraid his client would have contact with Steward as well.
In addition to the first-degree murder charges, Steward and Vasata, who was arrested in March, face attempted-murder charges for allegedly trying to kill Vorpagel.
With Steward’s arrest Tuesday afternoon, Jupiter police closed their investigation of the town’s highest profile shootings in years, Chief Frank Kitzerow said in an emailed statement.
Police said Henry’s Honda was stolen from the home after the shootings and abandoned on Interstate 95 and that a BMW was left behind at the scene. Police later discovered the BMW was rented to Vasata, who also faces three counts of first-degree murder.
Steward’s and Vasata’s DNA were found in gloves and on a T-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt and a gun found near Henry’s stolen car. Additionally, two of Steward’s
cellphones were found inside the BMW. A third DNA profile was found on the items but was designated as from an “unknown contributor.” Authorities identified at least one other man whose belongings were found in a BMW left near the scene. Vorpagel said the same man, whom The Palm Beach Post is not naming because he has not been charged, was allegedly a fellow drug dealer. Vorpagel told police that he, Henry and Vasata spoke the day before the fatal shootings about killing the alleged drug dealer because he was causing issues by robbing people, according to court documents.
But Tuesday, the Jupiter police chief said the case is closed.
When asked Wednesday about what happened to the third person named throughout police documents as a suspect, Jupiter police would not directly say anything about the individual. Police spokeswoman Kristin Rightler said as far as the police department is concerned, its work is finished. Everything it had was turned over to the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office, she said.
On Wednesday morning, the State Attorney’s Office referred all questions to Jupiter police.
On Feb. 5, Doherty, Henry, El-Salhy and Vorpagel were sitting around a backyard fire pit when they were shot by three masked and armed people just after 10:30 p.m. Police have identified Vasata and Steward as two of them. At the end of the gunfire from a handgun and an AK-47, Doherty, Henry and El-Salhy were dead, and Vasata was shot. Police have not said who shot Vasata, who was dragged from the home, put in Henry’s Honda and driven from the scene. He was found sprawled in the road in the town’s Paseos neighborhood about a mile southeast of the crime scene.
After his arrest, Vasata told another inmate that he and others planned to rob the people at the rented Jupiter home, but “his partner got trigger-happy and so they had to shoot everyone there.”
Police have not disclosed if there was a single shooter or who that person or persons may be. DNA from Vasata and Steward as well as a third, unidentified person was found on at least one of the guns.
In Steward’s arrest report, police said he claimed his cellphones were in the BMW because he bought marijuana from Vasata the night of the triple homicide and accidentally left them in the vehicle. When he was interviewed a second time after the DNA analysis was complete, police asked if he had ever been in Henry’s car. Steward said he hadn’t, then asked for a lawyer.
Vasata, who sat in a hospital bed for weeks recovering from a gunshot wound to his buttocks, waist and scrotum, made several statements with officers around including one admitting to the fatal shooting.
“Here I am, looking at heaven. I just killed three people and I’m looking at heaven,” he said according to the police report.
Vasata later denied making those statements and said he knew not to say anything to police because he’s “dealt with cops enough.”
Both Vasata and Steward have long arrest histories for offenses including drugs and homicide. Vasata’s arrests are mainly for drug offenses. Steward was arrested in the 2009 homicide of 17-yearold Anthony Hughey, but was later cleared of those charges, according to court records.
For now, Steward is being represented by the public defender’s office. However, a defense attorney told Booras in court Wednesday that the office has a conflict of interest in the case. The office is representing Vasata, so the Office of Regional Counsel likely will take over Steward’s case.