Jurors found 24-year-old Benjamin Smiley guilty Thursday of killing a Lakeland man, making it the second time he’s been convicted of murder in less than a year.

Benjamin Smiley

After deliberating for about six hours, the jury found Smiley guilty of first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm, tampering with evidence, aggravated assault and burglary of a dwelling.

At gunpoint, Smiley had the victim’s stepson take him into the home and to the bedroom where the safe was. The home invasion turned into a homicide when Smiley shot 58-year-old Clifford Drake two times – once in the hip and again in the chest – after demanding he give him the location of the safe.

Drake fell to the floor, and Smiley then pointed the gun at Drake’s stepson – who witnessed the murder – and demanded he get on the ground. Smiley fled from the residence.

In November of 2015, Smiley was also convicted of first degree murder for a similar home invasion shooting Lakeland that resulted in the death of 46-year-old Carmen Riley.

While prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in both cases, Smiley’s sentencing will be delayed until the Florida Supreme Court makes a final decision regarding the state’s death penalty.

During the 6-day trial, Smiley testified that he wasn’t in Lakeland at the time of the 2013 shooting and that he was unsure whether he owned the backpack and hoodie law enforcement recovered, both of which had his DNA on them.

“It’s bad luck that you’re in the homicide investigation?” Assistant State Attorney Kristie Ducharme asked Smiley as he sat on the witness stand Thursday. “Is it sheer coincidence that your DNA was on several (items)?”

“No, it is not,” Smiley replied.

Assistant State Attorney Kristie Ducharme. (FILE PHOTO)

He also claimed that every witness who’d placed him at the scene of the crime lied and that he couldn’t remember where he was or what he was doing the night or the murder.

“The person who has the most to lose on the outcome of case is you,” Ducharme told Smiley. “You have the greatest motive to ensure the jury believes what you’re saying.”

When Smiley was asked by Ducharme if those statements were correct, he hesitated then agreed.

In her closing statement, Ducharme reminded jurors that the eyewitness account and DNA weren’t the only pieces of concrete evidence linking Smiley to Drake’s murder. Cell phone records show Smiley making a call just after Drake was shot, placing him at the scene.

Benjamin Smiley is either the most unlucky person on the planet, Ducharme said in her closing statement, or he is the person who murdered Clifford Drake in front of his stepson. She reminded jurors that the mountain of evidence presented in trial proved that Smiley killed Drake.

Vincent Madhavath intended to kill his wife the night of Sept. 17, 2014.

Vincent Madhavath, 45, was found guilty as charged by a jury on Thursday, Sept. 29.

Madhavath, 45, of Winter Haven, hired a hitman – who was an undercover Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent – and planned to have him enter their home after midnight for a staged armed robbery where his wife would be shot in the head.

After watching video recordings of these meetings and hearing testimonies from witnesses during a three-day trial that ended Thursday, a jury found Madhavath guilty of attempted first degree murder and solicitation to commit first degree murder.

The undercover agent met with Madhavath multiple times from May 2014 to Aug. 2014 to talk about how the murder would be carried out. In one of the videos the agent took, Madhavath is seen handing the agent $5,000 in cash and a photo of his wife.

“I’ll smack you around a little bit, and then I’m gonna pop her in the head,” the agent told Madhavath in a video recording played in court Tuesday.

“I’ll make it nice and easy,” the agent told him. “Good enough?”

Madhavath’s reply was simple: “Yes.”

Assistant State Attorney Ashley McCarthy holds up the photo Vincent Madhavath gave to the hitman Aug. 6, 2014. The woman Madhavath intended to kill was his wife, and a jury found him guilty of attempted first degree murder Thursday after a three-day trial in front of Judge Yancey.

Assistant State Attorney Ashley McCarthy told jurors in her closing statement that the true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.

“You had the rare opportunity in this case to be a fly on the wall in the life of Vincent Madhavath,” she said. “The real Vincent Madhavath is in those recordings when he thought no one was watching … Those recordings are the most important pieces of evidence in this case because they show that he did it and that he meant to do it.”

Madhavath took the stand and told jurors that he didn’t mean to hire a hitman and that it was all a misunderstanding.

He told the jury he thought he was being targeted by people in his community who wished to drive him out of business. Instead of going to law enforcement – who Madhavath said he believed were corrupt – he hired a hitman from the same group of people he thought were out to get him.

All of the statements Madhavath made about the reason he was going to kill his wife are not consistent with a man who has two masters degrees and has lived in four different countries, McCarthy said.

“He’s too smart to do something that stupid,” she told the jury. “His own background and who he is is absolutely inconsistent with what he is telling you he actually believed. He’s telling you that because he got caught.”

McCarthy reminded jurors Madhavath should still be held accountable for his actions even though he was not the person who would have actually shot his wife.

“The reality of the situation … is that this man hired someone to kill his wife in his home with his children there,” McCarthy said. “He did it because he meant to do it – because he’s guilty.”

Madhavath was taken into custody by Judge Yancey and will be sentenced at a later date.

A trail of heroin crumbs led deputies to the closet where Gleen Efrain Zayas-Acosta was hiding.

Gleen Efrain Zayas-Acosta

Deputies found 35-year-old Zayas-Acosta behind hanging clothes near a hamper where he’d hidden about a kilo of heroin.

A prosecutor with the State Attorney’s Office laid out all the evidence before the jury in closing statements Thursday, re-enacting the way Zayas-Acosta would have had to run through the Davenport home with the drugs clutched to his chest.

“The 860 grams of heroin did not walk itself from room A to the hamper,” the prosecutor said, pointing to the defendant. “The only person who made that journey is sitting right here: Mr. Zayas-Acosta.”

The jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes and found Zayas-Acosta guilty of trafficking heroin, resisting officers without violence and possession of drug paraphernalia.

A Polk County Sheriff’s Office deputy saw Zayas-Acosta peek through the blinds in a front room of the house. Zayas-Acosta then grabbed a chunk of the heroin and ran to the master bedroom near the back of the house.

“People do not keep the better part of a kilo of heroin sitting in a closet or in crumbles on the ground in the bathroom,” the prosecutor said. “It was obvious he was being cornered. Hiding in the closet was a move of desperation and a move of last resort.”

Deputies obtained a search warrant for the house Zayas-Acosta was staying at after a K-9 alerted to drugs in a package addressed to the Davenport house. They found over a kilo of heroin – which is worth $100,000 on the street – a plate, scale and knife used to weigh and cut the drugs and $32,500 in cash.

This chunk of heroin, weighing 860 grams, was found in the hamper and was entered into evidence by the state. The total weight of heroin confiscated by law enforcement is 1,031 grams, which is worth $100,000 when sold on the street.

Law enforcement also found Zayas-Acosta’s social security card, driver’s license and birth certificate in the room where the drugs were located, and he admitted it was the same room he’d been sleeping in.

The defense claimed that Zayas-Acosta’s proximity to the drugs wasn’t significant enough to link him to them, but the prosecutor reminded the jury that the only places in the house where heroin was found were in the rooms where the defendant was.

It may have been in another person’s home, the prosecutor said, but the evidence was in his bedroom.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Brian Haas said he was pleased with the jury’s verdict, especially since heroin is a serious issue facing the community.

“This case involved $100,000 of heroin and $32,000 in drug money,” Haas said. “I’m proud of the work of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office in prosecuting this case to a conviction.”

Zayas-Acosta faces up to 30 years on the heroin charge and will be sentenced Oct. 13 by Judge Yancey.