A Florida lawyer who was disbarred after being accused of stealing $450,000 from his household trust fund has been charged with murder against someone believed to be his father, who was also an attorney.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was charged after the bullet-riddled body of his father, Paul Labiner, 68, was found in a pool of blood Saturday at the lawmaker’s workplace.
Police said in a statement that the victim’s household invoked “Marsy’s Law” to avoid being implicated, however, local retailers along with Sun clockstated that the physique belonged to Brandon’s father.
A redacted police report seen by the outlet said the victim was discovered at his father’s legislative workplace, and Brandon’s attorney said he was “grieving the death of his father.”
According to the Florida Bar, Brandon was disbarred in April after his father sued him for stealing about half a million {dollars} from a trust that listed his mom as the sole beneficiary.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was charged after his father, Paul Labiner, 68, was found with a bullet-ravaged body at his law enforcement workplace. The couple is pictured together
Brandon Labiner, 34, will appear earlier than expected Monday after being arrested on first-degree murder charges
The pair worked together at the same legislative agency until Brandon was pressured to resign last September.
According to police, the victim’s body was discovered around 4:30 p.m. Saturday by a family member in the 5400 block of North Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
He was found with his car keys in hand and had been shot in the head, upper chest and twice in the area of his body’s reduction, police said.
Brandon was a private injury attorney before his license was suspended, and after leaving his father’s watch, he worked out of his personal workplace about three miles north in Boca Raton.
After 2:00 p.m. Saturday, license plate readers recognized a car belonging to Brandon as it toured the scene of the crime, according to a police incident report.
Surveillance footage additionally confirmed that just after 3 p.m., a person rode a bicycle to Paul Labiner’s legislative workplace. This man was carrying a backpack with a string and took a field from the backpack, then a gun from the field.
He then put the gun down and started “walking around the parking lot.”
Forty minutes later, he lifted the item from underneath and hid near a wall, according to an arrest report released Monday by Boca Raton police and seen by The Sentinel.
Pictured is Paul Labiner’s law enforcement agency, outside of which the victim was discovered Saturday afternoon.
According to the Florida Bar, Brandon was disbarred in April after his father (the real one) sued him for stealing about half a million {dollars} from a trust that listed his mom (left) as the sole beneficiary.
Paul Labiner (left) is pictured with son Brandon (right)
A second man, believed to be Paul, is then seen with the suspect. After the 2 disappeared from the surveillance digital camera, the person with the gun fled.
Using surveillance video, the Boca Raton Police Department identified the suspect and located him at his personal legislative workplace in the 900 block of North Federal Highway, where he had barricaded himself as part of construction.
According to the police, his lawyer managed to lure him out of the construction site on Saturday evening.
Inside the workplace, the police officer noticed “a bicycle in an open closet door matching the description of the bicycle seen on the parking lot video surveillance.”
While the cops were in the construction, they additionally went to a public restroom and found in a trash can located second near Brandon’s workplace, a gun cleaning package and a piece of paper with the name of a lawyer, his attorney. Rodriguez.
A search warrant was executed in his car and police found a black drawstring backpack, a 9mm magazine, several containers of ammunition, a field pistol, a gasoline can, a lighter, gloves and face masks matching the description.
In addition, a trash can was set on fire and was “possibly used to attempt to destroy evidence,” according to the police report.
Additionally, a poncho they believe was worn by the suspect at the crime scene, which was seen on surveillance video from a nearby motel, was also found in the car.
Paul’s law firm specializes in estate and trust planning, and he was admitted to the Bar in 1992. He is in the picture
Brandon Labiner’s legal defense attorney, Valentine Rodriguez, informed The Sun Sentinel that his buyer “disputes” the allegations.
Paul’s law firm specializes in estate and trust planning and he was admitted to the Bar in 1992.
He sued Brandon over a trust fund dispute, and the lawsuit claims the pair had a “pretty good father-son relationship.” Brandon began exhibiting “strange behavior” in February 2022.
Paul said in the lawsuit that his son attacked him in May 2022 and injured his shoulder.
Before the two fell by the wayside, Brandon had run his own personal department at his father’s law firm, the Accident and Personal Injury Law Center.
They immediately hired about 20 temporary workers, according to the Sentinel.
“However, Brandon’s poor work ethic and underperformance as plaintiff’s counsel caused the caseload to drop dramatically” to “no more than a handful of viable cases,” the lawsuit says, as seen by the outlet.