ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The Orange County Sheriff’s Office says two arrests have been made following the death of a man who was wounded by a pellet gun near Orlando late last month.
Deputies responded around 4 p.m. Monday, March 31, to the 8800 block of Exchange Drive, where they located an unresponsive man with a puncture wound to his chest, the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
The man — identified as Kenneth Marrero-Cardona, 32 — was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the statement reads.
In an update Friday, the sheriff’s office announced that Emily Treusch, 33, and Kenneth Gibson, 36, had been arrested in connection with Marrero-Cardona’s death.
Treusch faces charges of second-degree murder with a weapon, robbery, and kidnapping, the sheriff’s office said.
Gibson faces charges of accessory after the fact and kidnapping, according to the update.
According to an affidavit for Treusch’s arrest warrant, the incident occurred at a homeless camp in the woods. The 911 caller told responding deputies that a female shot his friend, the affidavit states.
Marrero-Cardona, his girlfriend, the 911 caller and a fourth individual went to the camp looking to purchase drugs, the affidavit states, yet after Gibson began to argue with Marrero-Cardona, Treusch allegedly retrieved a pellet gun and shot Marrero-Cardona in the chest.
When Marrero-Cardona fell to the ground, his girlfriend thought at first that he was joking, according to the affidavit. Once she realized Marrero-Cardona was no longer breathing, the girlfriend told deputies that she attempted to perform CPR and move him away from the suspects, the affidavit states.
The girlfriend told deputies that Gibson then pulled out a revolver and pointed it at her, threatening to kill her if she didn’t stop screaming, investigators said. When the girlfriend attempted to call 911, Treusch allegedly took her phone away while Gibson “directed (the girlfriend) at gunpoint, to come to the tent to do drugs” in order to calm her down, the affidavit states.
Gibson then allegedly took a loaded syringe and “presumably stuck it in Marrero-Cardona’s arm in an attempt to make his death look like an overdose,” investigators said. He and Treusch then ran away, taking the girlfriend’s phone and the pellet gun with them, according to the affidavit.
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