COCOA, Fla. – A 17-year-old boy arrested last month in Brevard County is accused of helping a fellow teen who tried to kill his own mother flee law enforcement, according to the Cocoa Police Department.
Jeffery Patuano was taken into custody on Nov. 30, along with 17-year-old Tobias Brewer and a 15-year-old girl described by police as Brewer’s girlfriend. The three were in a vehicle that crashed at high speed in a wooded area on Deering Parkway and U.S. Highway 1 that morning, police said.
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Officers responded to a home on Japonica Lane, where they located Brewer’s mother lying on her back. According to affidavits, the 69-year-old woman had multiple stab wounds on her torso and face, she was covered in blood and her nose was almost completely detached. Before she was hospitalized in critical condition, the woman reportedly told police, “Toby did this.”
Officers said they had been called to the area by the mother of one of Brewer’s friends, whose son told her that “Toby” killed his mother. After police caught up with the woman’s son, they were told Brewer had made comments to the friend about a need to get out of the county, possibly to Tampa.
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Brewer’s cell phone was pinged multiple times by law enforcement, at one point placing him at a residence in Titusville. Officers who responded to the home met and spoke with Patuano’s father, who said that his son had since left with Brewer and the 15-year-old girl.
Volusia County deputies on Interstate 95 later spotted the teens’ vehicle — a Kia Rio belonging to Brewer’s mother — before the group reversed course and headed south, back into Brevard. A crash followed as well as a short search for Brewer and his girlfriend before the couple joined Patuano in custody.
Patuano told police that he was forced at gunpoint to stay in the vehicle with Brewer and the girl and ordered to throw a pair of pants and a bloody rag over the A. Max Brewer Bridge.
Brewer gave a different account, telling police that Patuano allegedly offered him food and shelter, gave advice on how to avoid law enforcement and even “bandaged (his) hand to stop the bleeding.” Additionally, Brewer’s version of events did not include a gun, police said.
Patuano faces charges of accessory after the fact and tampering with physical evidence.
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