Second man arrested in 2016 slaying in McDonald’s lot
Daniel Luther Brown charged with manslaughter.
WEST PALM BEACH — A suburban West Palm Beach man has become the second man charged in the December 2016 fatal shooting of a Boca Raton man in a McDonald’s parking lot, West Palm Beach police said.
Officers on Thursday arrested Daniel Luther Brown on a manslaughter charge in the death of Christopher Springs, 44, during an apparent drug deal. At a bond hearing on Friday, Judge Ted Booras set Brown’s bail at $300,000.
Another man, Justice Caraballo of Boynton Beach, is facing charges of third-degree felony murder and possession of marijuana with intent to sell. He was arrested in May 2017. Court records show that he has plead not guilty to both charges, and is currently free on a $160,000 bond.
Witnesses told police Brown shot Springs in the chest during the botched drug deal, the report said.
According to the police report, Caraballo and Springs were planning to sell Brown a pound of marijuana. Phone records from both Caraballo and Brown show several calls in an apparent attempt to set up the deal. Brown’s records also show that he was in the area of the shooting when the crime took place, police said.
When the three met in a parking lot behind McDonald’s at the corner of Okeechobee Boulevard and State Road 7, Brown apparently pulled a gun and told Caraballo and Springs to give him everything they had, the report said.
Police said Caraballo told them he ducked when Brown pulled the gun. He then said he heard a shot and saw Brown run from the scene.
According to the report, an unnamed witness told police that he arranged the deal between Caraballo and Brown. The witness told police that on the night the deal was supposed to happen, Caraballo called him to say that Brown had killed Springs.
The witness was also able to identify Brown using security footage from the area, police said.
The police report does not say whether authorities ever recovered the gun.
Brown was found guilty in December 2014 of possessing marijuana with intent to sell, the police report said.