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Kenyatta Bellamy was pressure washing outside his Davenport home when he went inside and found his ex-girlfriend and her lover in bed. He killed them both according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. PHOTO/POLK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE -
Kenyatta Bellamy
A man who bonded out of Osceola County Jail last month, killed his ex-girlfriend and her lover in his Davenport home just days later, when he told authorities he “lost it” when he found them in bed.
Kenyatta Bellamy, 50, was booked into the Polk County Jail on March 27, and charged two counts of first-degree murder, arson and tampering with evidence.
At 10 p.m. on March 27, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a house fire on Royal Ridge Drive in Davenport. When first responders arrived, they discovered a recently extinguished fire contained in the master bedroom with two deceased victims inside, a man and a woman.
Deputies and Polk County Fire Rescue found a gas can and a strong odor of gasoline inside the home. The victims also had trauma to their bodies, according to a Polk County Sheriff’s Office report.
Polk deputies learned that Bellamy had bonded out of the Osceola County Jail on March 24 after being charged with DUI manslaughter.
After bonding out of jail, Bellamy returned to his Davenport home where he allowed his ex-girlfriend to live while he was in jail. However, he discovered another man living in the home.
He called his mother, who lives in Miami, and said he was going to take a bus to Miami to see her. But due to the COVID-19 virus, he would not be able to take a bus, the Polk Sheriff’s Office report stated, and that made Bellamy angry.
On March 27, Bellamy took his ex-girfriend’s young son (who calls Bellamy “daddy” though they are not biologically related) to family members and went out to eat with a cousin. During dinner, he told the cousin he was upset about the male victim being in his house. After dinner, he told his cousin to leave him at a WaWa gas station because he did not want to return back to his house. The cousin later drove to the Royal Ridge house. She knocked on the door, but got no answer. She then smelled smoke, and dialed 911 to report the fire.
When Bellamy was arrested, he told detectives that he allowed his ex-girlfriend to stay in the house while he was in jail, and left her money with which to pay the bills.
However, he had no idea, she allowed the male victim to move in. He said on March 27, he was outside pressure washing, and went inside, and discovered them having sex so he “lost it,” the report stated. He used a hammer and a knife to kill the victims, Sheriff’s Office officials said.
Bellamy then lit a fire in the bedroom, and closed the door. The fire, however, extinguished itself before first responders arrived.
“If this suspect had remained in jail where he belonged, these two victims would still be alive. We are still piecing together why, after spending almost a year in jail, he was allowed to bond out,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
How did Bellamy bond out?
On Sept. 28, 2017, Bellamy was federally indicted on a charge of embezzlement of theft of public funds. However, before he was sentenced to two years in federal prison for the crime on Feb. 7, 2018, he was arrested for DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide on Jan. 19, 2018.
On April 17, 2018, Bellamy was scheduled to appear for pretrial in the DUI manslaughter case. When he didn’t appear, his bond was revoked. But his attorney had argued that he could not show up in court because he was already in federal prison.
Circuit Court Judge Keith Carsten ruled that, “after a defendant fails to appear, if he seeks bond and claims that his failure was unintentional. The court must hold a hearing. The court must then determine whether the failure was willful, and whether any reasonable conditions of pretrial release exist.”
Carsten wrote that his failure to appear was because he was incarcerated in another jurisdiction for a crime (embezzlement) that he accepted responsibility. And that it prevented his appearance for pretrial in the DUI manslaughter case. Therefore, the state agreed that he would be entitled for bond in Osceola once he completed his federal sentence.
Carsten wrote that the state was bound to Florida laws and the court was required offer bond.
So, bond was set at $30,000, and he was able to leave the Osceola County Jail
Bellamy’s past criminal history includes several felonies and misdemeanors. He was arrested in New York several times between 1993-2001 for manslaughter, robbery, assault, harassment, possession and sale of marijuana, larceny, and weapons charges, accordinmg to the Polk Sheriff’s Office.
He was arrested by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office in 2015 for armed robbery and petit theft. In 2017, he was arrested by Clearwater Police Department for theft.
“This is an awful tragedy that should never have happened. These people were brutally murdered, and an 8-year-old boy is left without a mother,” Judd said.
Below is a 2014 Polk County Jail mugshot. He will be booked in later today and will have a new mugshot taken at that time. Also below is a photo from the scene.
