Volusia County prosecutors announced Monday that they intend to seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing an off-duty cop at a Circle K gas station.
Eduardo Labrada Machado, 24, was indicted earlier Monday on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing of 45-year-old Edgewater Police Department officer David Jewell on Sept. 15 at the Circle K in Ormond-by-the-Sea where Labrada Machado worked, according to a news release from the local state attorney’s office.
State Attorney R.J. Larizza of Florida’s Seventh Judicial Circuit filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Labrada Machado following the indictment. It also said Jewell had been shot 20 times. Labrada Machado is currently in custody at the Volusia County Jail, records show.
Labrada Machado’s arrest affidavit says the killing was caught on the gas station’s security cameras.
Footage shows Jewell walking into the Circle K just after 4 p.m. and Labrada Machado leaving the store a minute later. Labrada Machado retrieves what appears to be a black jacket from his car before going back into the gas station, according to the affidavit.
Jewell is seen standing with food and drink at the register counter and looks at the door as Labrada Machado walks back in. Labrada Machado then immediately shoots Jewell at point-blank range about 8 to 10 times. After Jewell falls to the floor, Labrada Machado shoots him about 16 more times before leaving the store again. No words were exchanged between the two, the affidavit says.
Following the shooting, Jewell’s father-in-law, who had been in a car outside the gas station during the incident, told police Jewell had just picked him up from the emergency room and had gone inside the Circle K to buy a Polar Pop drink for him, the affidavit shows.
After being apprehended, Labrada Machado admitted to detectives that he had shot someone inside the store but didn’t know their name, according to the affidavit.
Labrada Machado said he’d seen Jewell in the store several times and believed he had an argument with him at some point in the past, although he couldn’t provide any details about the argument. He did not indicate he knew the victim was a police officer or if he had ever seen him in uniform. He did say he’d seen Jewell with a gun in the past and was afraid of him, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release following the killing.
He told detectives he was having a bad day on his drive to work and thought about shooting Jewell earlier. When he arrived at work and saw Jewell, he used a handgun he recently purchased to shoot him multiple times at close range, according to the release.
The release said interviews with Labrada Machado’s family members revealed he had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the past and had indicated he was hearing voices.
Labrada Machado does not have any prior criminal history. He had one prior encounter with law enforcement in 2023, a weapons complaint about him shooting guns at Tomoka State Park, the release said.
