Inset: Josue Zepeda-Urbina (Sarasota County Jail). Background: Applegate Apartments in Sarasota, Florida, where Zepeda-Urbina allegedly killed his ex-girlfriend (Google Maps).
A Florida man broke into his ex-girlfriend's apartment and plunged a screwdriver into her neck when he saw that she was in bed with another man, cops say.
Josue Zepeda-Urbina, 32, stands accused of second-degree murder in the death of Cheyna Kimberlin Moreno-Martinez and three counts of burglary of an occupied dwelling.
Sarasota police responded around 4 a.m. Sunday for a call about an unresponsive woman at Applegate Apartments, 1500 N. Lockwood Ridge Road, the agency said in a press release.
Officers found Moreno-Martinez unresponsive in the apartment. Paramedics later pronounced her dead.
Moreno-Martinez's roommate and a man who was in bed with the victim provided police an account of what led up to the slaying, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit.
The roommate said she's known the victim and suspect for about 15 years. She was sleeping in her bedroom when she heard the suspect yell something like "I told you," cops wrote. The roommate ran to the victim's room and saw her sitting on the bed and bleeding from the neck, officers said. She saw the suspect fleeing in his car, the affidavit stated.
Investigators also spoke with the man who was sleeping with Moreno-Martinez. He said Zepeda-Urbina came into the room and turned on the lights. The suspect said, in effect, "This is serious. Who is this?" That's when Zepeda-Urbina allegedly stabbed the victim in the neck with the screwdriver in his left hand.
Cops later tracked down the suspect using Flock cameras and arrested him. Part of his statement to police is redacted, but he said he and Moreno-Martinez were in a relationship before they separated. He said the two were still cordial and she brought him dinner on the night of the homicide. He claimed she told him to "come by later," cops wrote.
Zepeda-Urbina said that after leaving a bar, he went to the apartment, but it was locked, according to police. He said he went to his car and grabbed two screwdrivers. He allegedly used one to gain entry into the apartment and walked into the victim's room where he saw her and another man having sex. Zepeda-Urbina said he stabbed the mattress once and the victim once, using the screwdriver in his left hand, cops wrote.
The suspect told cops he went to a 7-Eleven to buy cigarettes before his arrest.
He remains in the Sarasota County Jail without bond. He is due back in court Dec. 4.