ORLANDO, Fla. — Closing arguments have ended in the Bessman Okafor murder trial and an Orange County jury is now deliberating to determine his fate. Okafor is accused of being the ringleader in the killing of a teenager who was set to testify against him the next day.
On September 10, 2012, 19-year-old Alex Zaldivar was shot and killed in a home invasion that authorities say was part of a murder plan masterminded by the 30-year-old Okafor.
Four months earlier, the home occupied by Zaldivar and the Campos had been robbed at gunpoint. Brienna Campos and Zaldivar told police that they answered the door in the middle of the day and were greeted by two men, not wearing masks and pointing guns in their faces.
Brienna gave a description of the man who entered the home that day, one that both of Okafor’s attorneys– Joseph Davis in the home invasion case, and Dean Mosely in the murder trial– would later argue did not fit their client. No one was harmed in that robbery, but the victims were tied up, the home ransacked and property was stolen.
Police followed a GPS tracker installed on one of the victim’s stolen phones to a home in Orange County where they found Okafor and Nolan Bernard, the other man, proecutors say, who entered the Ocoee home that day.
Okafor and Bernard were charged with armed home invasion and the night before Zhaldivar was scheduled to testify against the two men the home was invaded again, this time by two men wearing masks, who Brienna testified asked “is this the house that got robbed?”
Brienna Campos said she told the two men: “you’re going be disappointed like last time. There’s nothing here. Take the electronics and go.” And that’s when she heard the chilling words: “ya’ll are gonna get shot tonight.”
They were tied up and forced to lie face down on the floor. Brienna Campos and her brother Remington Campos were both shot in the head and left for dead. Zhaldivar did not survive.
Okafor and Bernard were convicted of armed home invasion on September 18, 2013, after a jury deliberated for 90 minutes.
Jury deliberations in the murder trial resume later today.
<div id=”debate_1_2290751”></div>
<script>
(function () {
var opst = document.createElement(‘script’);
var os_host = document.location.protocol == “https:” ? “https:” : “http:”;
opst.type = ‘text/javascript’;
opst.async = true;
opst.src = os_host + ‘//’ + ‘www.opinionstage.com/polls/2290751/embed.js’;
(document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0] ||
document.getElementsByTagName(‘body’)[0]).appendChild(opst);
}());
</script>
