BREAKING: Key West Jury Convicts Delmon Washington of Second-Degree Murder
Three-day trial ends in guilty verdict for 2022 killing of Latisha Alce; defendant faces mandatory enhanced sentence.
A Monroe County jury on Thursday found Delmon Washington guilty of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in the 2022 killing of Latisha Alce, concluding a three-day trial in Key West that traced a violent assault from a Stock Island apartment to a late-night traffic stop that prosecutors said cracked the case open.
Deliberations took a little over two hours.
Circuit Judge James Morgan presided over the trial. Major Crimes Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne led the prosecution, assisted by Assistant State Attorney Trey Evans. Jurors returned the verdict Thursday afternoon after deliberations.
Prosecutors told jurors the investigation began to take shape the night of July 22, 2022, when Key West police Officer Andrew Litton stopped a silver Hyundai with faulty equipment, including a blown tire. Officers testified that Washington was covered in blood and behaving erratically during the stop, despite having no visible injuries to account for the blood on his body and clothing. He was arrested on DUI-related charges and taken to the Monroe County Detention Center.
Body-camera footage shown at trial captured Washington making disturbing statements during the stop, including shouting that he was “the governor of death,” according to testimony.
In the early morning hours of July 23, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a Stock Island residence after a 911 call reported a woman covered in blood. Deputies entered the apartment and found Alce unresponsive with extensive head and neck injuries and blood pooled near her head. Life-saving measures were attempted until rescue personnel arrived, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by multiple blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, describing the trauma as catastrophic and consistent with a sustained, violent assault.
Investigators testified that the apartment showed signs of a violent struggle, including blood evidence and damaged furniture. A broken wooden table inside the residence matched fragments later recovered outside near roadside trash receptacles. Surveillance footage introduced at trial showed Washington and Alce arriving at the apartment together earlier that evening and later showed Washington leaving alone, discarding items near trash cans before driving away.
Authorities recovered physical evidence from the residence and from the vehicle Washington was driving at the time of his arrest, including Alce’s purse from the back seat. Detectives attempted to interview Washington while he was in custody, but he invoked his right to an attorney and declined to speak.
Jurors also unanimously found that Washington qualified as a prison releasee reoffender under Florida law. Court records show he was released from state prison on Dec. 3, 2021, less than three years before the killing. Under the statute, defendants convicted of qualifying violent felonies within that period face mandatory enhanced sentences and must serve any imposed term day-for-day without early release.
Second-degree murder in Florida is punishable by up to life in prison. With the reoffender designation, Washington faces a mandatory enhanced sentence that could include life imprisonment. Tampering with physical evidence is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
“This was a brutal and deeply violent crime, and today’s verdict holds the defendant accountable,” Dunne said, thanking jurors, witnesses and investigators for their work on the case.
Chief Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield said the verdict reflected coordination among law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, noting that what began as a routine traffic stop helped connect critical evidence.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 6 at 3 p.m. in Courtroom A at the Monroe County Courthouse in Key West.