HAINES CITY, Fla. (WFLA) – After more than a year searching for answers, the Haines City Police announced a break in a 2016 murder. 

Re’shaunte Jermaine Anglin, 18, has been charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and tampering with evidence. His alleged accomplice, Ray Leon Walker, 22, is now charged with accessory after the fact (a capital felony) and tampering with physical evidence.

Their arrests come more than a year after the body of 32-year-old Shavon Shawn was discovered on May 15, 2016, in the rear parking lot of a shopping plaza located at 35884 Highway 27 in Haines City.

Shawn had been shot to death, and his pockets were flipped inside out, leading detectives to believe he was robbed. His vehicle was later found abandoned in Lake Alfred, with a key fob nearby.

The key fob proved to be an essential piece of evidence in the investigation, tying Anglin to the crime through DNA analysis, according to Interim Haines City Police Chief Jim Elensky.

“For today, I am so thankful, so grateful,” the victim’s mother, Marva McIntosh, said to investigators.

Shawn was a pageant winner who went by the stage name “Mercedes Successful” as well as a well-known and active member of the gay community.

“He was a makeup artist, performer, designer,” McIntosh told News Channel 8 he had a heart of gold. “My son was so generous, people loved him.”

Elensky said cellular phone records for both suspects were also crucial, and revealed a text message conversation between the victim and Anglin, discussing a prescription drug transaction, as well as the intimate and sexual relationship between the two of them. Despite that information, police believe the motive was robbery.

“For something so small, this murder is not easy to comprehend,” Chief Elensky said.

McIntosh admitted she may never feel closure, but she was grateful to be one step closer to justice.

“These murderers need to be behind bars for they [their] lives, we need justice,” she said.

Anglin and Walker were charged with other offenses related to the murder while PCSO Crime Scene Investigators continued to process the evidence. The forensic evidence processed by PCSO, along with phone records processed by the FBI, linked both suspects to the murder.

Anglin was already serving a sentence in the Polk County Jail for battery on a detention officer, attempted robbery and escape after he attacked a Juvenile Assessment Center employee, then escaped. He was booked in on those charges in January 2017 and has been in jail on no bond since that time.

Walker is also currently serving a sentence in the Polk County Jail on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and violation of probation. Those charges originated from a search warrant conducted at his residence during the early stages of the homicide investigation.

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