VERO BEACH — An Indian River County Grand Jury has indicted two men on first degree murder charges in two separate Vero Beach cases, according to the Vero Beach Police Department.
The suspects are Rene Cruz, who is accused of stabbing to death a bicyclist at the McDonald’s on US 1 in Vero Beach in September, and Donald Crabtree, who is accused of killing his step-father in October at their home on 13th Avenue.
Cruz, 59, has been described by authorities as being homeless. He told investigators that he attacked 28-year-old Kevin Adorno because he believed Adorno was conspiring with others to kill him.
Adorno was riding a bicycle from Maryland to Miami where he had planned to meet up with his girlfriend and propose to her, authorities said at the time of the incident. She was on the phone with Adorno when Cruz attacked, they said.
Crabtree, 45, told investigators that he snapped during an argument with his 71-year-old step-father, Richard Lloyd, of the 3100 block of 13th Avenue. That argument, Crabtree said, was over money and he blamed the man for sexually abusing him and hooking him on drugs.
Lloyd’s body was discovered covered with a dark colored comforter in a back bedroom on Oct. 9, after a friend of Crabtree’s notified authorities that Crabtree had told him what he had done.