JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A man arrested on drug charges after a September 2020 shooting death in Jacksonville Beach is back in jail.
Roman Steward Jr. was arrested after 20-year-old Ezekiel Archuleta was shot and killed Sept. 21 at a home on Penman Road North at 12th Avenue. Officers dispatched to a burglary in progress found the victim in the front yard with gunshot wounds. He died at a hospital.
Recommended Videos
Steward, 22, who lived at the home that was the target of the burglary, was detained at the scene but only charged with armed possession of drugs, not with the homicide.
Steward was arrested again last week when police went to his apartment after he had failed to appear at a court hearing in St. Johns County on a different set of charges.
In plain view in Steward’s apartment, officers said they found 3.5 pounds of marijuana, trafficking amounts of psilocybin mushrooms, almost 1,900 prescription painkillers, $10,000 in cash, two AR-15 rifles and a shotgun -- one of the guns reported stolen. According to Jacksonville Beach police, they also found more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and an armor-plated vest.
Months after Archuleta’s death, Jacksonville Beach police charged Samantha Wiener, 18, with murder, saying she had solicited Archuleta to burglarize her former boyfriend’s home.
Wiener is being held on $450,000 bond at the Duval County jail.
Steward is now also in jail charged with armed trafficking in prescription drugs, armed possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and theft of a firearm. He is held on $335,000 bond.