Grand jury indicts three for 1st-degree murder in ‘tree house’ stabbing

A grand jury has indicted three Florida Keys men on first-degree murder charges in the Nov. 17 stabbing death of a Stock Island man who prosecutors say came to the aid of a neighbor who was targeted because the defendants thought she had a large amount of cash inside her home following a drug deal earlier that day.

Rory Hank Wilson, 50, of Stock Island, Franklin Tyrone Tucker, 46, of Key West and John Travis Johnson, 39, of Marathon were indicted by the Monroe County grand jury Tuesday.

Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne, with the office’s major crimes unit, filed additional charges against the trio for robbery with a deadly weapon while masked, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon while masked, battery while masked and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon while masked.

Dunne also filed a charge of witness tampering against Tucker. According to the charging document, Tucker threatened a witness five days after Mathew Bonnett, 59, was killed.

Wilson and Tucker are accused of stabbing Bonnett to death as he approached the 5650 Laurel Ave. shanty tree house of his neighbor, Paula Belmonte, 59, who was being robbed at knife point and cut in the throat, prosecutors say. Around 8 p.m., as the the men walked out of Belmonte’s home, they got into a fight with Bonnett, stabbing him several times. He died later that day.

Detectives say Johnson was the designated getaway driver and waited in his pickup truck outside during the incident.

The additional charges Dunne filed were related to two other men who were in Belmonte’s home that night and struck and threatened at knife point by the men, according to the charging document.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Grand jury indicts three for 1st-degree murder in ‘tree house’ stabbing."