Neville George Anthony Bethune

A Lehigh Acres man has been adjudicated guilty and sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder with a firearm.

Neville George Anthony Bethune, 50, also was sentenced to 15 years in prison for arson in the second degree.

The jury returned the guilty verdict in March following a five-day trial in Lee County.

Bethune was one of three men arrested in the 2019 death of a 25-year-old man who had visited Bethune’s home to collect money, officials said.

“The victim spoke with the defendant and another man, co-defendant, Andrew Maldonado,” a release from the State Attorney’s Office, 20th Judicial Circuit, states.

Deputies with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office later found the victim’s body, burned beyond recognition, in the trunk of a car, near South Bay, a city in Palm Beach County.

“Surveillance video from a nearby gas station captured Bethune, his brother Donovan Baker, also a co-defendant, and Maldonado in the area that night,” the release states. “The videos showed Bethune’s truck following the victim’s rental car, just a short distance from where it was set on fire.”

The three men were later seen on the surveillance video from the same convenience store. Bethune appeared to have trouble getting out of the car, officials said.

“Evidence presented at trial showed he had sustained injuries when he set the car on fire,” the release states.

The three were arrested following an investigation by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The U.S. Marshals also assisted in the case.

Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott and Assistant State Attorney Aleathea McRoberts, from the 15th Judicial Circuit, were appointed as special prosecutors for the 20th Judicial Circuit, to prosecute this case.

Source: Office of the State Attorney’s Office, 20th Judicial Circuit