MONROE COUNTY, Fla. – Deputies arrested a Florida Keys man Saturday on a murder charge after they accused him of beating his girlfriend to death at their home just outside of Key West.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the investigation began at around 11:30 Friday night when a Key West police officer stopped 44-year-old Delmon Washington as he was driving a Hyundai with a blown tire.
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Washington was behaving erratically and had blood spattered throughout his clothes and body, but no visible injuries, the sheriff’s office said. Key West police arrested him on DUI and resisting arrest charges.
Officers found a purse in the car belonging to 46-year-old Latisha Tiare Alce, deputies said, and contacted the owner of the Hyundai, one of Alce’s family members. They made an unsuccessful attempt at contacting Alce.
All of this made Alce’s family suspicious, according to the sheriff’s office, and they went to the couple’s residence in the 5100 block of Suncrest Road on Stock Island. There, they found Alce bloodied and unresponsive and called 911, deputies said.
Officials pronounced her dead at the scene after a failed attempt to revive her, according to MCSO.
“Alce appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma to her face and much of her body,” a sheriff’s office news release said. “There was a lot of blood at the scene as well as a broken table near her body.”
Security footage from a nearby business showed Washington and Alce arriving at their residence earlier in the night and later showed Washington throwing away a large object and some clothing before leaving in the Hyundai, deputies said. No one else was seen entering or leaving.
Washington was already in the Monroe County Jail when deputies arrested him on the murder charge. He also faces a charge of destroying evidence.
Officials said Washington has a “lengthy criminal history” in the Keys dating back to 1999, with numerous arrests on charges including aggravated battery, battery on a law enforcement officer, kidnapping, armed burglary, larceny, drug offenses and resisting arrest, among others.