Final suspect in Ocoee murder found guilty

(Ed. note: Reader discretion is advised.)

After eight hours of deliberation that began Aug. 25, the jury reached a verdict Aug. 26 of guilty on all counts against Bessman Okafor, 30, including first-degree murder.

Okafor, Donnell Godfrey and Emmaneul Wallace all have been found guilty of first-degree murder for their roles in the 2012 death of Alex Zaldivar, 19. Godfrey and Wallace received sentences to life in prison.

Unlike the others, Okafor, whom authorities said had been the triggerman, could receive the death penalty. Sentencing hearings led to the jury recommending the death penalty 11-1 Sept. 1. The victim's family has said it would prefer the death penalty.

Prosecutors have described how they believe those three men attempted to murder three residents of an Ocoee home Sept. 10, 2012. Three people had broken into Zaldivar's residence just after 5 a.m., knocking over objects to make the scene look like a robbery, prosecutors said.

But defense attorney Dean Mosley said the wrong man had been charged in Okafor's case.

"Law enforcement had decided who they wanted to be guilty in this case," Mosley said. "The truth is, on Sept. 10, around 5:15, 5:20 in the morning, it's dark; it's quiet. ... They processed the (scene) and did not find ... anything in that house that would connect Bessman Okafor to being in the house."

Authorities said suspects had worn masks and brandished firearms as they dragged Zaldivar; Brienna Campos, then 20; and Remington Campos, then 23, from their beds at their Bernadino Drive home, ordering them to the living-room floor for execution-style shots to the backs of their heads.

Zaldivar received two shots to the head and then did not move, assumed dead by the Camposes. Brienna said she and Remington had been shot along the side of their heads, so they had remained conscious.

"After what felt like an eternity, I lifted my head up and called out to Alex -- and there was no response," Brienna said. "After I called out to my brother, he popped up, as well."

According to a record of the Camposes’ 911 call, Brienna told dispatchers she and her brother had dashed out their back door after the shooters had fled out the front door. The Camposes had clambered over their backyard fence, rolled downhill and then pounded on a neighbor’s door for help, while their head wounds left a trail of blood.

"While it is a physical miracle that those two young people survived the gunshot wounds, it is a larger miracle that they survived the plan that led to them," Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams said. "The evidence ... indicates Bessman Okafor's plan was set in motion and was a well-orchestrated attempt to end their lives."

The Camposes had heard a suspect in the Sept. 10 incident ask about a home invasion in May 2012.

That home invasion occurred at the same residence, and it was the reason for this planned execution of witnesses to that crime, prosecutors said.

Brienna said Okafor and Nolan Bernard had robbed the residence of money, cell phones and electronics that May afternoon, having asked for drugs, as well.

"They (Okafor and Bernard) used (our) house keys to stick it in the house front door lock and make sure it would unlock and lock, like they were going to come back," Brienna said.

In the Sept. 10 crime, the suspects asked whether the Camposes were the victims of that invasion, as well as where the other two witnesses to that invasion were.

"They asked again, 'Where's the drugs; where's the money?" Brienna said. "So I told them, 'You're going to be disappointed like last time -- there's nothing here. Take the electronics and go.' And then someone said, 'Well, it looks like y'all are going to get shot tonight.'"

Okafor and Bernard, both already felons, faced convictions of burglary with a firearm, robbery with a firearm, fleeing imprisonment with a weapon and aggravated assault with a firearm for the May robbery, ultimately receiving multiple lifetime prison sentences Oct. 11, 2013. Orange County deputies and Ocoee police had caught them, using cellphone-tracking software. The trial was set for Sept. 11, 2012 — one day after the shootings. Zaldivar and Brienna were among the witnesses ready to testify against Okafor and Bernard, before they were shot.

"Orange County Circuit Judge Bob LeBlanc let ... Okafor ... go on a small bond with a cheap radio frequency monitor," Zaldivar’s father, Rafael said. "Court records indicate Okafor left his Pine Hills home at 4:40 a.m. (Sept. 10) and returned at 5:46 a.m. The deadly shooting in Ocoee occurred around 5:15 a.m., according to police. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put the pieces of the puzzle together."

Weeks before the shootings, Okafor’s mother, Catalina Cynthia Ruffin-Sinclair, went to the Campos residence twice, offering money and a vehicle in exchange for dropped charges against Okafor. The Camposes refused both times, as well as when another woman appeared at their residence with the same offer. The Camposes called the Ocoee Police Department, which sent a response team but recorded no report, according to records. Neither woman had threatened violence, but both were arrested for tampering with witnesses by bribe, in a string of at least nine suspects arrested in connection to the robbery and shootings. That string included Nesly Ciceron and Sherria Gordon, Okafor’s friend and girlfriend, respectively, who had served as lookouts and ultimately assisted in the identification of Godfrey and Wallace as Okafor’s accomplices in the shootings, prosecutors said.

Okafor was being monitored by the radio-frequency device in home confinement with a curfew, conditions of his release on bond while awaiting trial for the robbery. The shootings were among 109 curfew alerts for violations of his confinement in less than three months of monitoring. None of the electronic notifications was reported to a judge.

According to two county reviews, managers in the Orange County Corrections Department pressured staff to avoid reporting such defendant violations. Michael Tidwell, corrections chief, announced his retirement when the reviews were published.

Orange County reached a settlement with the Zaldivar family and the Camposes on Sept. 10, 2014, two years to the date of Alex’s death.

Rafael said at the time that his son’s estate and each Campos sibling would receive $100,000, with the possibility of more via claims bills in the state legislature. He called it an admission of failure for which his son had to pay with his life.

Since his son’s murder, Rafael has advocated for stricter laws to deny bail to violent criminals. He has said all of the defendants and their accessories should be exterminated.

Okafor is eligible for the death penalty in part because of considerations of the malice of the acts within charges against him, as well as the five life sentences he received in convictions related to the initial armed robbery.

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].