Daryl Willis Jr. arrived at Mary Martinez’s home in Orlando’s Rosemont North neighborhood on the evening of May 20. He had been there before to sell her crack cocaine, police say, but this time he’d come to settle a dispute over a quad bike.
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Martinez had accused him of stealing the all-terrain vehicle, which belonged to her granddaughter. He wanted $55 in exchange for its return. Martinez and her relatives soon had a plan to “scare him off,” she’d later tell police.
She had called her daughter, Jennifer Bennett, and Bennett’s fiancé, Joseph Petrus — the parents of the girl whose quad bike was stolen. Bennett told Martinez to pretend to have Willis’ money so he would come to the home, where the family would all meet, Martinez later told police.
“Maybe he would get a little scared, and he wouldn’t come back,” Martinez said.
But the plan to scare Willis ended in the 33-year-old being shot and killed.
Now Petrus and Bennett have been arrested, as has Martinez’s other daughter, Jessica Bennett, and that daughter’s girlfriend, Susan Holloway. All were at Martinez’s home when Willis was killed, police records show.
Petrus was arrested shortly after the May killing and charged with first-degree murder, the Orlando Police Department said in a news release. He has pleaded not guilty and is in custody at the Orange County Jail, court records show.
The three women were arrested Wednesday on charges of evidence tampering. The Bennett sisters were also arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit robbery with a firearm and attempted robbery with a firearm, the release said. Only Jessica Bennett was listed as being in custody at the Orange County Jail as of Friday evening.
Detectives determined that the four planned to recover the bike from Willis when he arrived at the home that night in May.
Around 7 p.m., Willis backed his Nissan into the driveway of Martinez’s home, where she was waiting for him. He got out to speak with her while his girlfriend remained in the passenger seat. But just a few moments later, Petrus arrived and pulled in front of the driveway, attempting to block Willis in.
Willis quickly got back in his car and attempted to drive away, but Petrus pulled out a gun and shot him through the car’s window, his girlfriend would later tell police. Willis turned to her and said, “Babe, he killed me,” then lost consciousness and the car crashed into a tree, she said.
Jessica Bennett and Holloway went to Willis’ crashed Nissan and searched inside it for the bike. They did not attempt to help Willis, who lay injured in the driver’s seat, before leaving the scene, police records show.
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Police arrived, and Willis was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
OPD spoke to all five family members, some of whom initially gave false accounts of what happened and omitted details, the agency said.
Martinez, for example, told police that Willis had lunged at her in the driveway just before the shooting, and Petrus told police he drew and fired his gun because Willis had grabbed Martinez.
Petrus had simply “tried to save her,” he said. “I got to defend her,” he added.
The family had removed their home’s Ring camera in the minutes after the shooting, police said, but officers recovered surveillance footage from elsewhere that showed Willis had not acted aggressively towards Martinez in the driveway.
After being told about the footage, Petrus said the plan had only been to get the quad bike back from Willis and “beat his ass,” but that shooting him had not been part of the scheme.
When asked by police if he would have done anything differently, Petrus said he would have gone home and held his children.
Susan Holloway admitted to police she picked up a shell casing following the shooting and gave it to Jennifer Bennett. Bennett told police she threw the casing down the road.
Martinez has not been charged.
She told police the disagreement needn’t have ended in death as Petrus didn’t need to fire his gun.
“I don’t see there would have been any reason to shoot,” she said “It was just a matter of getting back his daughter’s 4-wheeler.”
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