Death penalty sought

From: St. Augustine Record, FL - 03 Jan 2003

First-degree murder trial faces deaf man

By KEN LEWIS
Staff Writer

A deaf man accused of murdering a deaf woman in St. Johns County now faces the death penalty.

In the last days of 2002, the state filed a notice of its intent to seek death in the first-degree murder trial of Joshua Wolfe, 22.

Wolfe was arrested in October after the battered body of Carmen Maria Reyes, 26, was found in the kitchen of her home on Del Monte Avenue. He is accused of stabbing her to death.

Assistant State Attorney Maureen Sullivan Christine said the state would seek the death penalty because the circumstances surrounding the killing were so atrocious. The crime scene had been altered before a family member found Reyes' body four days after her slaying, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.

Wolfe and Reyes had known each other for years, the sheriff's office said. He was connected to her death after a witness reported seeing Wolfe's vehicle parked at her home around the time of the killing. The home is across the street from St. Augustine High School, in a quiet residential area.

Reyes was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. She had lived in St. Augustine since 1986 and was a graduate of the Florida School of the Deaf and the Blind.

© Copyright 2002 The St. Augustine Record and Morris Digital Works.