JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Clay County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday it has charged two teenagers from Jacksonville in connection with the September 2008 slaying of 19-year-old Eric Colon.
Sheriff Rick Beseler said 19-year-old Hector Sanchez fired the shot that took Colon's life and 18-year-old Markeil Thomas drove the getaway car. Both are charged with murder.
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Investigators said Colon was killed during a robbery attempt about 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 10, 2008, in the Cheswick Oaks neighborhood in Argyle -- only blocks south of the Duval-Clay county line.
Beseler said Colon offered no resistance to the robbery. Detectives connected the Sanchez and Thomas to the crime through some of the items stolen during the crime.
"Eric was truly an innocent victim. He happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time -- walking down the street, coming home from work, coming home from a friend's house," Beseler said. "It was late at night. He just happened to be selected quite at random as the victim. It could have been anybody."
Sanchez was booked into the Clay County Jail and Thomas was taken into custody in Jacksonville.
At a first appearance in Duval County court Wednesday morning, prosecutors told a judge that Colon was gunned down for his cash, cellphone and marijuana.
Sanchez is also charged in the July 23, 2008, slaying of Levi Rollins at a Westside apartment complex. Jacksonville police said Sanchez believed Rollins was spreading rumors that he was gay, so Sanchez lured Rollins to an apartment to smoke marijuana and shot him.
Beseler urged people to think more about the victim of the crime than "the cowardly and despicable act these two animals perpetrated by coming down here to Clay County and killing him in cold blood."
Colon's parents joined Beseler at an afternoon news conference announcing the arrests.
"He was my only son -- a wonderful kid," Jo Ann Lopez said of Colon. "They took my life; part of my heart."
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