Man arrested in Longboat Key murders worked as night security guard
LONGBOAT KEY FL Aug 11 2017
A man arrested in connection with Friday’s double homicide and robbery at Zota Beach Resort has worked as a night security guard himself.
Darryl V. Hanna Jr., 29, was arrested at 4 p.m. Wednesday at his residence in East Bradenton, according to Longboat Key police.
Hanna was arrested without incident and is being charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of armed robbery.
Around 2:45 a.m. Friday, security guard Kevin Carter, 51, of Bradenton, and night front desk manager Timothy Hurley, 59, of Sarasota, were shot and killed during a robbery at the Zota Beach Resort, 4711 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key.
Both employees were approached during the robbery and shot to death, but police were not called until 3:30 a.m., when the men were discovered by a guest.
In surveillance video released by police, at least one suspect is seen carrying out cash drawers. There was about $600 in them.
Authorities will held a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday to discuss additional details of the arrest. Longboat Key Police Chief Pete Cumming said his department worked around the clock to solve this case.
Sarasota County court records show Hanna was charged with a petty larceny, a second-degree misdemeanor, earlier this year. Hanna pleaded no contest to the charge on May 3, according to court records.
An arrest affidavit for the case shows that on Jan. 11, gifts left on employees’ desks at a private investment firm at 2 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota between Dec. 23 and Dec. 27, 2016, were reported missing. The stolen items included two gift cards and wireless speakers.
Hanna, a night security guard for U.S. Security Associates, was working in the building, according to an arrest affidavit. His boss told police he was working overnight hours on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25.
Hanna admitted to taking one of the missing gift cards, saying he gave it to his girlfriend as a Christmas present, according to the affidavit. He denied taking the second gift card or the wireless speakers.
Hanna also was cited for marijuana possession and issued a separate citation for unknowingly operating a vehicle with a suspended driver’s license, both in 2012.
According to Manatee County records, Hanna was also arrested in 2008 on a charge of resisting arrest without violence. He was found not guilty in a non-jury trial in 2009.
A reward for information leading to an arrest in the case was increased to $50,000 Monday.
The deaths at Zota Resort were just part of a violent three days in Manatee County. The day before, Melquisedec “Tito” Betancourt was found shot to death in a car parked behind a business after officials received a call of shots fired in the 7100 block of North Tamiami Trail. Officials tracked down 36-year-old Karrie Lee Sanderson III, said to be an acquaintance of Bentancourt, and charged him with second-degree murder.
On Saturday, another early-morning shooting was called in to 911 at 3:51 a.m. with reports of shots fired in the 1100 block of Harvard Avenue in Bayshore Gardens.
A 25-year-old woman was confronted by three or four people when she arrived home on Harvard Avenue, according to officials. She was forced her into a bedroom, by the suspects. Detectives said her boyfriend, 23-year-old Rodney Williams, and possibly another man were there. The woman escaped the bedroom and called for help, but Williams and 28-year-old Keith Lamar Jones were found dead after shots were fired.
The Bayshore Gardens deaths could be connected to a crime scene in Sarasota where Andre S. Bryant’s body was found on the side of the road that same day, but officials have not confirmed a connection.
