Man charged with second-degree murder in Ocoee

Ocoee police arrested 23-year-old Jose Luis Chavez as part of an investigation into the suspicious death of a man discovered on July 21 in an apartment complex on Wurst Road.

According to the Ocoee Police Department, officers responded to a call from Chavez’s landlord at 473 Wurst Road in Ocoee just before 10 a.m. that day. She told officers she received a text message from Chavez saying he had stabbed someone, police reported. She promptly called him and he said he was moving and would no longer be living in the apartment, according to police records.  

“Hey dude yesterday a guy came into my room and he wanted to nail me so I killed him dude,” the text said, according to the arrest affidavit. 

Upon searching Chavez’s apartment, officers discovered the body of 40-year-old Rogelio Andrade Hernandez, who had been stabbed, according to police. 

Chavez was taken into custody at a Greyhound bus station on John Young Parkway during the investigation on Monday, July 22.

According the arrest affidavit, Chavez said he was in bed when he woke up to a man he thought was trying to rape him, so he grabbed the knife he kept in his room and stabbed him. Chavez said he didn’t remember how many times he stabbed the man and that he “wasn’t thinking” at the time, the report said. 

Chavez also said he and the victim had been drinking that night and had consumed drugs, including cocaine, according to police. 

Investigators later recovered the victim’s van, which Chavez reportedly drove off in heading to a location near the intersection of Reba and Flewelling avenues. A knife was found nearby. 

“During the interview, at no moment or time did Jose Luis Chavez seem remorseful; he appeared as if he was not bothered at all by what he did,” Ocoee Officer Juan Munoz wrote in his report. 

Chavez was charged with second-degree murder with a weapon and third-degree grand theft auto and is being held in the Orange County Jail.