In March 2022, an 80-year-old man died near Greenacres. A 24-year-old guy from Delray Beach pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
During a hearing on Thursday at the Palm Beach County Courthouse, Matas Baltus also admitted to grand theft of a motor car. The hearing was in front of Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd. Court records show that Baltus will spend 35 and 5 years in jail at the same time because of the plea deal. On Sept. 12, he will be given an official sentence.
Mat is a young guy who comes from a great family. “He took responsibility and didn’t want to put the family through the stress of a trial,” Baltus’s lawyer, Michelle Suskauer, said.
Man Died Because He Was Hit by Something Hard
Baltus was arrested on March 9, 2022, after officers found him in the car of Willy Wengi, an 80-year-old man who was found dead that night in an apartment along Via Poinciana just west of the city limits. This led to the charges against him.
The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office said that Wengi died from injuries to his neck, head, face, and stomach that were caused by a blow to the body. A PBSO arrest report didn’t say why the two guys killed each other or how they knew each other.
Two neighbors who went to the apartment that night to check on Wengi told officers that they saw Baltas sleeping in a chair while they were there. One neighbor said that when Baltas woke up, he told him that Wengi had called and asked him to get some things from the house. The other person said that he ran to Wengi’s car and drove away quickly.
The tweet below verifies the news:
They found the 80-year-old man beaten to death in his apartment. How a 24-year-old man will pay. https://t.co/vO49vCNcdR
— The Palm Beach Post (@pbpost) June 7, 2023
The police report said that Wengi’s body was found in a bathroom. It was tied together with electrical and computer cords and tape. Investigators from the sheriff’s office found two sets of DNA on a cellphone charge cord that was used to tie Wengi’s hands behind his back. One was from Batlas, and the other was from Wengi.
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The Trek From the Apartment Complex Ended in Broward
Witnesses told sheriff’s officers that Baltas drove away that night in Wengi’s 2015 Hyundai Genesis. As he left the apartment complex off 10th Avenue North west of Jog Road, they said, he hit and hurt two older women and hit several vehicles.
Investigators said that a car that looked like a Hyundai was involved in a number of hit-and-run accidents on Jog west of Delray Beach and Boca Raton.
Later, deputies in Broward County replied to a 911 call about something that seemed strange and found Baltus taking things out of the Hyundai. He told the police that he saw the car while walking around the area.
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