An Osceola teen staked out the home of a former friend and stabbed her to death when she stepped outside, a jury decided on Wednesday.
Read more Vindman demands Moody call for release of Hope Florida grand jury report
Anas Muhammad, 21, of Kissimmee, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2022 killing of his neighbor, 16-year-old Paola Pagan-Malave. Muhammad confessed to detectives during their investigation, which prosecutors say helped secure his conviction.
He was 17 at the time of the killing and told police he had once been friends with the victim. While he admitted he specifically targeted her, he said he would have killed anyone else who had been in her place that day, according to his charging affidavit.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell released a statement celebrating the verdict.
“While today’s verdict delivers justice, it also serves as a heartbreaking reminder that two families have lost their children,” Worrell said. “Paola’s family continues to grieve the daughter they loved, and another young life has been forever defined by a senseless and irreversible decision.”
Pagan-Malave had been walking to the school bus stop near her Kissimmee apartment around 6:15 a.m. on Nov. 17, 2022, as she did every morning, when her mother heard a commotion outside. She found her daughter bleeding out on the ground just outside her apartment. The girl later died at the hospital.
Kissimmee police learned of Muhammad, who lived in the same apartment as the victim, from one of her friends. Muhammad told police he hadn’t spoken to Pagan-Malave in about two years and that they had “broke off their relationship” because he believed she was the reason their friend group had split up, according to the affidavit.
Read more Best homeschool planner
Muhammad told police he had woken up around 9 a.m. and had gone to play basketball with his friends. But detectives looked through his phone and noticed he had made a call a few minutes after Pagan-Malave was attacked earlier that morning, the affidavit said, contradicting his story about when he woke up.
When detectives said he could get in trouble for lying about where he was and that they would use cameras to check if he really had gone to play basketball, Muhammad put out his hands and asked to be handcuffed. He asked, “How much time would I get for murder?” and began to apologize to his mother, who was in the room with him, the affidavit shows.
Muhammad said he knew where and when Pagan-Malave left for school each morning and waited for her, walking up from behind and stabbing her just after she left her apartment. He said he thought she would be an easy target but would have stabbed anyone who left the apartment, according to the affidavit.
He also told police had discarded his face mask and sweater in a drainage pipe after the killing. Detectives located the face mask with his help and noted it appeared to have a dark red substance on it, the affidavit said.
Muhammad is currently in custody at the Osceola County Jail. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 9.
Read more ‘I’m just so lost:’ Haitians face impossible choices as TPS nears the end