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CHRIS TISCHDetectives followed a patchwork of leads to a suspect in the deaths of two roommates.
LARGO - This week's arrest in the shooting deaths of two roommates did not come easy to Pinellas County sheriff's detectives.
For several days, detectives had only a partial name of the man they thought had killed his roommates. But after navigating through hospital records, a jail database and fingerprint documents, investigators made an arrest in the case in Hillsborough County on Monday night.
Detectives say Jose Sevallas Flores, 29, admitted that he shot to death the two men after an argument. Flores told investigators one of the men pushed him and the other threatened him with a chair, sheriff's Lt. Steve Shipman said.
"It was anger," Shipman said. "They disrespected him, according to his statement."
Sheriff's officials still have not made positive identifications of the victims. No names have been released.
Identifying the men has been difficult because they are not thought to be U.S. citizens, and because the bodies had decomposed for about a week before being discovered Thursday evening.
The landlord of their duplex, 15454 Verona Ave., found the bodies after a neighbor called him to complain of a foul odor. The landlord told investigators he found the bodies in a bedroom, then alerted deputies at an unrelated fire down the street.
The landlord also said the door had been locked when he arrived, leading them to think the killer may have had a key. There were no signs of burglary, drugs or robbery, though neighbors had reported hearing gunshots about a week before the discovery.
Detectives were told that a possible third roommate had lived with the two men.
Acquaintances could only provide detectives a partial name of the third roommate, but one thought he had visited a local hospital recently for a knee injury, Shipman said.
Investigators confirmed from the hospital that a man with that partial name had been treated there. The hospital could provide what no one else could: the man's date of birth.
Another acquaintance told detectives that the third roommate had come to his home several days before looking for lodging and work. He said the man told him he had just killed two people.
"He didn't believe him," Shipman said. "So he just dismissed it."
That acquaintance helped the man find work with a paving company in Fort Myers.
Hoping the suspect had an arrest record, detectives started scrolling through a jail database to see whether they could match the man's date of birth to variations of the partial name they had received.
That's how they found out that their suspect had the last name Flores.
Though he was known by his first and middle names, Flores had been arrested in Largo in 2000 for providing false identification to police. That arrest record included his fingerprints, which were compared to a bloody print left on a door frame in the Verona Avenue home.
It matched Flores. Detectives had enough evidence to arrest him.
Investigators tracked him down to a work site in Apollo Beach, then used a ruse to lure him to a 7-Eleven off U.S. 41 in Hillsborough County, where he was taken into custody.
He admitted getting into an argument with his roommates, then going to his room and getting his gun, Shipman said. He returned to the living room, shooting one of the men once and the other twice, he said. He then moved their bodies into the bedroom and left.
Flores gave detectives permission to search a residence where he had been staying in Fort Myers, where they found the gun they think was used in the shootings. Ballistics tests will be done to tell for sure, Shipman said.
Flores was being held without bail Tuesday evening in Hillsborough County, where he faces extradition to Pinellas County to face two charges of murder.