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Man sentenced to four life sentences for quadruple murder
A Belize citizen who killed a Lehigh Acres family, including his aunt, his pregnant cousin and her boyfriend, has been sentence to life in prison for each of the deaths.
Brian Omar Hyde, 22, was sentenced to life in prison on four counts of second degree murder in the August 2015 slayings.
Hyde, who had entered the country illegally through Texas seven months before and was staying with the family, was found guilty following a four day trial in Lee County in April.
Brian Omar Hyde
The sentences will be served concurrently, officials with the State Attorney's Office said in a release issued Monday.
Hyde used a machete to murder his aunt, Dorla Pitts, 37, her daughter Starlette Pitts, 17, and her daughter's boyfriend, Michael Deon Kelly Jr., 19. Starlette was 6 months pregnant so prosecutors added the additional murder charge for her unborn child, Ary.
The victims were found dead in the 21st Street S.W. home the four shared after a family friend went to check on them. All had been stabbed multiple times.
An 18-month-old girl, the daughter of Pitts and Kelly, was found unharmed.
Hyde was arrested after he was pulled over by law enforcement for driving erratically. He was driving his deceased aunt's car and had a bag packed in the trunk.
Assistant State Attorneys Andreas Gardiner and Hamid Hunter of our Homicide Unit handled the case.
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