A brutal murder of an off-duty police officer at a Volusia County gas station last year landed a 25-year-old killer a life sentence this week.
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Eduardo Labrada Machado, 25, killed David Jewell, 45, an Edgewater Police Department officer, on Sept. 15 at a Circle K in Ormond-by-the-Sea. Labrada Machado worked at the station, but his motive for shooting Jewell 20 times while the older man waited to pay for food and drink was never clear.
Labrada Machado pleaded no contest earlier Monday to first-degree murder as part of a deal that saw him avoid the death penalty, which prosecutors had been seeking.
The officer’s widow, Elizabeth Jewell, and his son both spoke at Labrada Machado’s sentencing hearing. Jewell lauded her husband for spending his life helping others and condemned his killer.
“Your life is meaningless, it will remain so until your final breath,” she said to Labrada Machado. “David Jewel will be remembered for a lifetime of purpose, dedication and love, and that you can never take.”
The killing was caught on the gas station’s security cameras, according to Labrada Machado’s arrest affidavit.
Footage shows Jewell walking into the Circle K just after 4 p.m., and Labrada Machado leaving the store a minute later. Labrada Machado retrieves what appears to be a black jacket from his car before going back into the gas station, the affidavit says.
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Jewell is seen standing with food and drink at the register counter and looks at the door as Labrada Machado walks back in. Labrada Machado then immediately shoots Jewell at point-blank range about eight to 10 times. After Jewell falls to the floor, Labrada Machado shoots him several more times before leaving the store again. No words were exchanged between the two, the affidavit says.
Following the shooting, Jewell’s father-in-law, who had been in a car outside the gas station during the incident, told police Jewell had just picked him up from the emergency room and had gone inside the Circle K to buy a Polar Pop drink for him, the affidavit shows.
After being apprehended, Labrada Machado admitted to detectives that he had shot someone inside the store but didn’t know their name, according to the affidavit. He said he’d seen Jewell in the store several times and believed he had an argument with him at some point in the past, although he couldn’t provide any details about the argument.
Labrada Machado did not indicate he knew the victim was a police officer or if he had ever seen him in uniform. He did say he’d seen Jewell with a gun in the past and was afraid of him, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release following the killing.
He told detectives he was having a bad day on his drive to work and thought about shooting Jewell earlier. When he arrived at work and saw Jewell, he used a handgun he recently purchased to shoot him multiple times at close range, according to the release.
The release said interviews with Labrada Machado’s family members revealed he had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the past and had indicated he was hearing voices.
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