The Kissimmee man who police say shot three residents to death at a Buenaventura Lakes apartment complex in November was set to stand trial next week, but court records show it’s been canceled.
Kevin Torres, 41, was scheduled to face a jury and begin his trial in Ninth Circuit Judge Keith Carsten’s courtroom on Monday.
At a pre-trial hearing Feb. 17, the state gave notice of filing to seek the death penalty in the case. Torres’ defense also filed a motion for a continuance due to an incompetency finding filed in open court, which Carsten denied, since it pertained to a filing in a different case. The court set a future competency hearing; there’s no word on whether that delayed the start of the trial.
Torres is charged with three counts of second-degree murder in the Nov. 16, 2021 shooting deaths of Justin Atkinson, 43, his son Calvin, 16, and Anthony Mull, 25. The state originally levied 20 total charges against Torres but eight were dropped, leaving the murder charges and those for burglary, false imprisonment, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft and abuse of a dea d human body.
According to police, Torres came to his Flower Place Apartments home in the morning and found Justin Atkinson, who he’d “known from the neighborhood and did drugs together.” Assuming he was there to rob him, Torres shot Atkinson, who was unarmed.
Torres then went to Atkinson’s apartment in another building in the complex. Mull answered the door, and Torres, believing Mull would be angry that he shot Atkinson, shot Mull. Hearing the gunshots, Calvin Atkinson came out of his room, and was subsequently shot.
Two female minors, ages 16 and 11, witnessed the shootings. Under threat of shooting them as well, Torres forced them to collect any items of value from the apartment, took them and fled, stealing a car from a family friend. He drove to Orlando, where the Orange County SWAT team apprehended him in the car.
He was returned to Osceola County, where Sheriff Marcos Lopez said Torres gave “a full, detailed confession.”
Prosecutors have noted Torres’ prior felony cases — a 2019 charge for dealing in stolen property and a 2017 aggravated assault case. In both cases, charges were dropped when he was found incapable of standing trial. The court mandated his mental health plan, and he asked for treatment at Park Place Behavioral Center in Kissimmee, according to court records.
TODT TRIAL SET FOR APRIL 4: Anthony Todt, the man accused of killing his wife, children and family dog in their Celebration townhouse in January 2020, has been moved back another nine weeks into early April.
At a Jan. 6 hearing, the state filed a motion to continue in order to better put together its discovery documents, and the one of he attorneys in case passed away in December 2021.
