FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Detectives considered Michael “Scooby” Petty a career criminal and a convicted felon. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up in South Florida. By 18, he had been arrested for two burglaries in Broward, and he was a felon by 19.
Petty was sentenced to five years in prison. The Florida Department of Corrections released him when he was 23, and he was on probation for a federal crime when police officers arrested him on Feb. 26 in Plantation.
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According to Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective Kevin Nitsch’s report to the court, a recorded jail call with a woman on Feb. 27 showed he blamed Vashay Johnson for being behind bars and potentially going back to prison.
“That [racial slur] ain’t [expletive]” and “he going to get treated like it,” Petty said during the call, according to Nitsch.
Petty allegedly accused Johnson of drawing “heat” to his car because he didn’t have “responsibilities” or “a family” and “did not care” about getting arrested for shoplifting.
Petty was accused of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number. During the call, Petty allegedly said he had to get a lawyer and “fight the case” and was “mad as hell!”
Correctional officers released Petty after the jail call on Feb. 27 and Johnson on Feb. 29. Hours after Johnson’s release, deputies found him dead with stab wounds “in the neck, chest, side and back” near West Broward Boulevard and Southwest 28 Avenue.
“Petty cut his hand while stabbing the victim,” Nitsch wrote on May 1 — adding surveillance video placed Petty at the murder scene with his girlfriend’s car.
According to Claudinne Caro, a BSO spokeswoman, deputies in a specialized unit arrested Petty on May 2 in Hollywood. BSO held him at the main jail on a U.S. Marshals Service hold.
On Friday, at 35 years old, Petty appeared in Broward County court with two new cases pending: A capital homicide and a second-degree felony.
Court records show prosecutors filed the felony charge on Feb. 28 and the first-degree murder charge on May 6. Broward County Circuit Judge Edward Harold Merrigan Jr. was presiding over both cases.
Local 10 News Photojournalist Wade Hughes contributed to this report.