Key West jury convicts ‘governor of death’ of killing girlfriend during beating
A Key West jury found a Monroe County man guilty of second-degree murder Thursday in the July 2022 beating death of his girlfriend inside the couple’s home.
The investigation into the murder of 46-year-old Latisha Alce began with a late-night traffic stop by Key West police on July 22, 2022. An officer pulled over a silver Hyundai driven by 48-year-old Delmon Washington because he was driving with a flat tire.
The officer found Washington acting erratically, and he was covered in blood despite being uninjured, according to his arrest report. The officer’s body camera footage recorded Washington screaming that he was “the governor of death,” prosecutors said.
He was booked into jail that night on a charge of driving under the influence.
Less than an hour after the traffic stop, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call from Alce’s daughter, who found her mother inside her Stock Island home unresponsive and covered in blood. Deputies arrived to find Alce dead of what appeared to be blunt-force trauma to her face, the arrest report said.
The deputies also found a broken table inside the house, according to the report.
Family members told detectives that Washington and Alce had been in a relationship for about 20 years and lived together on Stock Island, which is just north of Key West in unincorporated Monroe County. The sheriff’s office took over the homicide investigation.
The murder trial began Tuesday, with Judge James Morgan presiding. The jury deliberated for about two hours Thursday, Monroe County Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne, who leads the office’s major-crimes unit, told the Miami Herald in a text.
“This was a brutal and deeply violent crime, and today’s verdict holds the defendant accountable,” Dunne said in a statement. “Latisha Alce’s life mattered, and she deserved safety, dignity, and the chance to live free from violence.”
READ MORE: Keys man covered in blood was charged with beating his girlfriend to death, deputies say
Assistant State Attorney Trey Evans tried the case with Dunne.
During the investigation, detectives watched security-camera footage that was from a nearby business and showed Washington and Alce at their home earlier in the night, according to the arrest report. The footage later showed Washington throwing away a large object and clothing before leaving the house in a Hyundai, detectives said in their report.
Detectives found broken pieces of the table in the trash, according to court documents. When Key West police pulled over Washington, officers found Alce’s purse inside the car, detectives said.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of Alce’s death was multiple blunt-force head traumas and neck injuries, according to court documents.
“The injuries were extensive and reflected a sustained and extremely violent assault,” the State Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The jury also found Washington guilty of tampering with physical evidence, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
Washington has a long criminal history, including violent offenses, in Monroe County. He was released from prison in December 2021 after serving five years for felony criminal mischief for breaking a bunk off a wall while locked up in a county jail, court records show.
Because he committed another crime within three years of being released from prison, Washington is subject to mandatory enhanced sentencing under Florida law, the State Attorney’s Office said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 6 in Key West.
He faces life in prison for second-degree murder and five years for evidence tampering. Washington qualifies for an additional life sentence for re-offending after being released from prison, prosecutors said.
