PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Alexander Perez, just fourteen years old and charged with murder. Detectives say he robbed and beat 81-year-old Robert Walker to death back in September.
Medical examiners recently ruled Walker’s death a homicide due to blunt force trauma. As a result, investigators now say Perez faces murder charges in Walker’s death.
Robert Walker talked to News Channel 8 after he was attacked just hours before he died.
“Well, I was robbed once before by him. Q: you were robbed by him before? About three months ago. He tried to kill me. “
Police believe Perez did rob the man and did beat him but say it was never Perez’s plan to kill Mr. Walker.
“Unfortunately he died in a commission of a felony and that’s how it gets to first-degree murder,” said David Dacey, Pasco County detective.
Detectives hope this awful incident will serve as a lesson to those looking for mischief.
“Hopefully they see this and they see this fourteen-year-old gentlemen arrested for first-degree murder and they may think twice about going out late at night and robbing people,” said Dacey.
Perez will get to do a lot of thinking as he sits in jail waiting to be tried as an adult. Hours before Mr. Walker died he wanted to ask Perez this question:
“Why did you try to kill me?”
We asked detectives if Perez seemed sorry for what they’re accusing him of. They said not really.
“He seems calm when he talks to me. He doesn’t seem, I guess, very sorry,” said Dacey.
Alexander Perez has been in custody since his initial arrest in September. He’s being held in a regular detention facility. Not a juvenile jail.
