Man not guilty by insanity in slaying
Man was killed at his Boca Raton diner in 2014.
WEST PALM BEACH — A Pompano Beach man has been found not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of the owner of a popular suburban Boca Raton restaurant in 2014.
Judge John Kastrenakes said Tilus Lebrun, 47, will remain housed in a mental-health facility under the supervision of the Florida Department Children and Families for an indefinite period.
Prosecutors and Lebrun’s defense attorney announced at a plea hearing July 30 that they would not to move forward with a trial scheduled to begin later in the day after two mental-health experts found Lebrun was insane when he used a kitchen knife to repeatedly stab his boss, Dimitrios Karaloukas, 62, in front of terrified diners at the Jimmy the Greek Taverna on Glades Road just west of Florida’s Turnpike.
Karaloukas died about an hour after he was taken to Delray Medical Center. Jose Romero, a restaurant employee, was also stabbed but survived his injuries.
Maria Karaloukas, Dimitrios’ wife of 24 years, said the outcome was the best she could hope for.
“It’s not exactly what I want, but at the end of the day, it’s not such a bad thing,” Karaloukas said. “He’s going to be locked up indefinitely. That’s all I ask for.”
Lebrun had been hired by her husband as a dishwasher eight days before the homicide, Maria Karaloukas said.
After the stabbings, Lebrun was found across the street with a knife in his hand. Lebrun told deputies the stabbings were a result of Karaloukas taking a photo of him and then posting it on the internet, according to an arrest report.
Lebrun, a father of three, was ruled competent to stand trial last year after a judge had ruled earlier that he was incompetent.
Dimitrios Karaloukas, known as “Jimmy,” was seated in the restaurant’s dining room speaking to patrons on March 13, 2014, when they heard screaming coming from the kitchen, according to witnesses. Those screams turned out to be from Romero, who was critically injured.
Lebrun emerged from the kitchen and stabbed Karaloukas three times in the side and once in the back.
“He was wonderful,” Maria Karaloukas said. “There is nobody out there who had a bigger heart, a bigger zest for life. And to be wiped out ... it’s just not good.
Jimmy the Greek’s closed for less than two weeks after the homicide of its owner and has been in business ever since, Maria Karaloukas said. Romero, the kitchen worker who was seriously injured by Lebrun, still works at the restaurant.
“Restaurant’s still open,” Karaloukas said. “Got to keep my husband’s legacy going.”
Lebrun also faced charges of battery on a law enforcement officer from two separate incidents in which he allegedly attacked deputies while he was being detained at the Palm Beach County Jail. In one of the incidents, Lebrun threw feces and urine at detention officers.
Asked if she feared Lebrun might eventually be freed, Maria Karaloukas said: “The judge said indefinitely, so let’s hope and pray God keeps him in there and keeps him locked up for the rest of his life.”