Courtesy photo / Jail mug. Lonnie Redner, 32, of Palm Coast, was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of two men inside an Ormond-by-the-Sea home.
ORMOND BEACH -- By his own admission, convicted felon Lonnie Redner was inside the grisly crime scene back in November where two men were brutally murdered at a home in Ormond-by-the-Sea, a Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman said Thursday.
But Redner insisted he didn't kill 43-year-old Michael Floyd and 26-year-old Andrew Kakowski. He just stumbled onto the bodies of his two acquaintances when he showed up at their house, Redner told investigators with theSheriff's Office's Major Case Unit.
"However, his insistence that he wasn't the killer didn't ring true with investigators, particularly after Redner admitted stealing money and drugs from the dead men, swiping the murder weapon from the crime scene and burning his clothes," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. "After methodically building a case against Redner, investigators on Thursday charged him with two counts of 1st-degree murder and one count of robbery with a firearm.
The 32-year-old Redner of Palm Coast is in custody at the Flagler County Inmate Facility, where he has been held since Dec. 11 on an unrelated weapons charge.
On Nov. 13, the victims were found dead on the living room floor of a home on Alamanda Drive. Floyd had been shot and stabbed and Kakowski had been shot. Investigators found two spent, .380-caliber bullet casings at the scene. What they didn't find was any signs of forced entry or a struggle, leading investigators to believe that the victims knew their killer.
Investigators immediately started to track down friends and family. The records from the cell phone shared by the victims led investigators to Redner.
He was first interviewed less than a week after the bodies were discovered, and Redner denied any involvement. He told investigators that Floyd wanted to sell him prescription pills, but he turned down the offer and didn't go to the victims' home.
However, Redner's story started to unravel a few weeks later after an informant at the Flagler County Inmate Facility told investigators that he lived with Redner and his girlfriend in Palm Coast, was with Redner in the past when he bought drugs from the victims and knew Redner carried a gun, Davidson said.
One time, after buying pills from the victims, the informant told investigators that Redner remarked that he should rob them of their drugs and that it would be easy to do. The informant also said he was with Redner when he burned some clothes and an empty cardboard ammunition box in his backyard back in November. He also told of an argument between Redner and his girlfriend at their house in which a gun was fired.
Davidson said another witness to the shooting incident would later tell investigators that Redner angrily screamed at his girlfriend: "You just shot the murder weapon."
Based on the new information, investigators went back to Redner's house last month and talked to his girlfriend. While accompanying the woman to her bedroom to retrieve her cigarettes, investigators noticed bullet holes in the walls and ceiling. Then they found Redner hiding in a closet. Investigators confronted Redner with the new information during a second interview, at which time he admitted being in possession of a gun, Davidson said.
"He said he had it hidden under the mattress, and his girlfriend found it and fired it in their bedroom, and then he grabbed the gun and fired it some more," Davidson said. "Then he gathered the bullets and casings and tossed them out and threw the gun in the river. Redner again said he wasn't the killer, but later admitted going to the victims' home and finding them dead. He said he found the gun at the scene and took it and also rifled through the dead men's home and pockets, taking whatever prescription pills and money he could find. Redner said he later burned the sweatshirt and hat he wore that day because they smelled of death."
Based on information developed in the case, investigators believe Redner returned to the victims' house a couple of days after the murders and went back inside looking for more drugs and money to steal, Davidson said.
His girlfriend was with him, but stayed in the car, and investigators don't believe she knew that the men were dead. On Dec. 11, Redner agreed to a third interview with investigators.
"He changed his story several times during the interview, and his account of his activitie," Davidson said. "When investigators completed the interview, they brought Redner back to his house in Palm Coast, where Flagler deputies were waiting for him. Based on Redner's admission to being in possession of a gun, Flagler deputies obtained a warrant charging him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon."
According to the Florida Department of Corrections web site, Redner served nearly three years in prison after he was convicted in 2001 of attempted armed robbery.
Following Redner's arrest, Volusia investigators continued to gather up additional evidence in the double-murder.
The Volusia County Sheriff's Office's dive team recovered a .380-caliber handgun from the Intercoastal Waterway in Palm Coast. A search of Redner's Palm Coast home turned up a large folding knife and a bullet that was lodged in a roof truss. And Volusia investigators combing a couple of lots in Palm Coast recovered six shell casings and a projectile.
Ballistics tests conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed that the bullet and casings recovered in Palm Coast were similar to the casings found at the crime scene and the bullets recovered from the victims' bodies.
On Thursday, Sheriff's investigators presented their findings to Circuit Court Judge Joseph Will, who signed the arrest warrant for Redner.
Investigators drove the warrant to Flagler County Thursday afternoon and served it on Redner in his jail cell. Redner is being held without bond.