Police search for woman linked to 2017 killing
LANTANA — Authorities are looking for a woman who said she was present when Justin VanMeter was fatally shot last year near Lantana.
Angela Lavallo, 22, is wanted on charges of being an accessory after a murder, lying to law enforcement and illegally owning weapons, according to information from the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office and the county’s Crime Stoppers program.
A poster listing Lavallo as a “wanted fugitive” was posted June 1 on the Crime Stoppers website and listed her last known address as a home in Delray Beach. A search warrant filed June 15 indicates the charges are linked to VanMeter’s death.
The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the details of those charges. Lavallo remained at large Wednesday and has a warrant out for her arrest, according to Crime Stoppers.
Lavallo told sheriff’s authorities last year that she was in her white Mazda late July 9 with Mcintosh Pierre-Paul and Jean Mary Marcherno near the Hypoluxo Food Market.
Surveillance-camera footage from the market shows VanMeter, who was getting off a shift as a server at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Boynton Beach, shake hands with Marcherno, then talk to him outside the store.
VanMeter, a 28-year-old who had a 3-month-old son, then walked toward an alleyway east of the convenience store. Marcherno got into the white Mazda that PierrePaul was driving, sheriff ’s records state. The car moved toward the alleyway. Lavallo told investigators Marcherno got out of the car, which was registered in her name, and stepped into the alleyway just before she heard a gunshot.