Guilty verdict reached in Ridge Manor murder case
BROOKSVILLE –
Jurors took less than an hour to conclude Angel Gonzalez was an active participant in the shooting death of 47-year-old Ivan Horne.
Jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 7, at which time he could receive up to life in prison.
Gonzalez, 28, bought the ammunition that killed Horne. He also helped his co-defendant remove the victim’s pants, which contained oxycodone pills and cash.
He said he crushed and snorted two of the pills while his co-defendant buried the pants and other evidence of their crime under 3 feet of dirt.
Gonzalez didn’t pull the trigger, but admitted he drove the victim to his execution.
He said all of the above during his interview with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, a video of which was shown to jurors Wednesday.
“The property wasn’t just taken from Ivan Horne,” prosecutor Pete Magrino told jurors during his closing arguments. “It was taken out of fear, force and violence.”
During the course of three days, jurors heard from 15 witnesses, watched video of two crime scenes and an interrogation. They were released to deliberate around 5 p.m. and knocked on the door an hour later ready to announce their verdict.
Gonzalez shook his head when it was read. After jurors left the courtroom, he slumped in his chair and sulked.
Authorities linked Gonzalez to the May 3, 2010 shooting death, which took place in front of an abandoned house in Ridge Manor Estates, a remote neighborhood in eastern Hernando County.
His co-defendant is the victim’s son, Stephen Horne, 20, who is accused of shooting his father four times, including once in the back. His trial date has not yet been set.
The morning after the slaying, a motorist saw the victim’s body lying face up in front of an abandoned house at 6478 Otter Drive the following morning and called 911.
Jurors Wednesday morning watched Gonzalez’s interrogation with Detective Phil Lakin. During the three-hour video, the defendant said he witnessed the shooting, helped strip the clothes off the victim’s body and recovered the empty shotgun shells.
The shells were later discovered at his co-defendant’s house, according to court testimony.
A weapons examiner said the shells came out of the younger Horne’s sawed-off shotgun, which also was found and collected as evidence.
Authorities said Gonzalez and Horne planned ahead to rob the elder Horne of his drugs and sell them for cash.
Two women close to Gonzalez heard him say he and Stephen Horne agreed to “hit a lick,” which is street slang for robbing someone.
The target was Horne’s father, whom they knew had a prescription for oxycodone.
“I needed pocket change,” Gonzalez told Lakin during the interview. “I was looking to make a flip … go hustle them off and do whatever.”
Gonzalez’s girlfriend at the time, Jessica Conant, loaned him her car so he and Horne could commit the robbery, Magrino said.
Conant was not charged, but testified against Gonzalez.
Also on Wednesday, jurors heard testimony from Dr. Kyle Shaw, who performed the autopsy.
He said Ivan Horne died from four shotgun blasts to the torso.
The autopsy took an “abnormally long amount of time” because Shaw had to extract several shotgun pellets from the body, he said.
Shaw told jurors the wound to the victim’s lower back was a “rapidly fatal injury” because it completely destroyed the lower part of Horne’s spine.
Gonzalez’s attorney, Junior Barrett, called no witnesses. He argued the younger Horne made the decision on his own to fatally shoot his father. He said Gonzalez was driving away from the scene when the shots were fired, an indication he didn’t know what would happen.
Even still, Gonzalez ended up assisting Horne in removing the victim’s pants and boots.
“It was an appropriate verdict given the facts, testimony and evidence in the case,” Magrino said. “It was one of the swifter murder one verdicts I’ve prosecuted.”
Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected].
