A young Florida father is dead and four suspects are in custody after, police allege, he was likely lured into a violent robbery by an 18-year-old woman he met on a popular dating site.
As the woman allegedly sat outside the victim’s home, hours after their date, three men were allegedly robbing him inside, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Police allege the robbery escalated to violence, ending with 27-year-old Adam Hilarie fatally shot in his kitchen early Friday, though police say they still aren’t sure how.
“Hilarie was begging for his life, he was not putting up any kind of fight, and was telling them that he had a 5-year-old daughter,” according to arrest reports cited by the Sentinel.
Police say Hilarie was shot once in the head.
Within days of his death, all four suspects in his case would be arrested, Auburndale Deputy Police Chief Andy Ray said at a Monday news conference.
Hailey Bustos was arrested first and identified by police as the woman who allegedly met with Hilarie via Plenty of Fish, Ray said at the press conference.
It’s “a good possibility [Bustos lured Hilarie with the dating site],” Ray said. “She didn’t say that specifically, but given the way it worked out, it seemed like that’s what she was intending to do because they did go out on a date, he did drop her off and within a few hours she was back.”
Soon after Bustos’ arrest, Ray said, three men – all friends or acquaintances of one another – were arrested in Hilarie’s death: Joshua Ellington, 26; Gary Gray, 31; and Andrew Warner, 26.
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Ray said that Warner was the one who allegedly pulled the trigger in Hilarie’s fatal shooting. All four are charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery with a firearm or a deadly weapon and first-degree murder; and three of the four, including Bustos and Warner, are charged with violation of probation, Ray said.
“In this particular case, a couple of these guys are career criminals,” Ray said Monday. “Mr. Warner is a violent career felony offender and so based on his history, he has violent tendencies.”
And Ray alleged that Bustos may have been involved in a similar scheme before, saying, “I think more than anything, it’s just her comfort with the way this went – didn’t seem like it would have been the first time. And if she hasn’t done it, then she’s talked to people that have done it that coached her on how to do it.”
Bustos was allegedly paid $50 to arrange the robbery, according to the Sentinel, citing police.
She allegedly said she didn’t know Hilarie would die, according to the paper.
All four suspects remain in jail as of Tuesday, according to court records. (Auburndale police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.)
It was not immediately clear if they had entered pleas or retained attorneys. They will next appear in court on Sept. 27.
Police Describe a Deadly Date
Bustos and Hilarie went out together Thursday night, Ray said, and the two returned briefly to Hilarie’s apartment before he took her home.
They had gone bowling, according to the Sentinel, and Bustos later texted Hilarie that she enjoyed herself and would like to see him again.
But Ray said Monday that soon after Hilarie dropped Bustos off at her apartment that night, she allegedly met up with the three other suspects.
“Once she got home, they talked together, they worked out the details and then they went back,” Ray said.
Somehow – police aren’t sure exactly how – the suspects got back into Hilarie’s apartment early Friday. Police said he was killed between 2:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. and his roommate discovered his body, along with several missing items, hours later upon returning home.
“There appeared to have been a struggle in the kitchen of the apartment and [it’s] possible that it led to the shooting,” Ray said Monday.
“I don’t think that was necessarily the plan in the beginning,” he said. “I think the plan was that he get robbed and they take his stuff. I’m not sure why the shooting occurred.
“That’s one of those that just causes us to scratch our heads. It’s the reality of the way some people deal with things in this world.”
Ray said that after the robbery, Hilarie’s front door was left open and a witness later told police they saw Hilarie with a “young hispanic female.”
The witness account led to the identification of Bustos, which helped focus the investigation, Ray said.
Victim ‘Always Had That Smile,’ Brother Says
Hilarie had a 5-year-old daughter, according to the Sentinel and a GoFundMe set up after his death.
On his Facebook, Hilarie posted multiple photos of the two together, calling her “my princess.”
“Each and every one of you know he was fun to be around,” one Hilarie’s brothers said at a vigil, according to the Sentinel. “No matter what we did, we always had a good time and he always had that smile. This isn’t easy.”
