A 27-year-old man and friend of slain Grooveshark executive Eddy Vasquez has been found guilty of second-degree murder almost two years after the now-defunct music site employee was gunned down in the street.
According to local paper The St Petersburg Tribune, Vasquez and his friend and co-student at the University Of South Florida, Andres Rodriguez Torres, were out celebrating the latter's birthday the night of the murder, which occurred near local bar Publix about 4am on Saturday, 9 November, 2013.
Reports indicate that Vasquez and Torres had gotten into an argument, resulting in Torres shooting Vasquez twice in the chest and leaving him in the street. Investigators caught up with Torres at his apartment, where a firearm and alleged hostage — thought to be a witness — were found. He was charged with second-degree murder and kidnapping at the time of the arrest, though no information has been made public regarding the second charge.
Incidentally, the finding comes just over a month after 28-year-old Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg was inexplicably found dead at home by his girlfriend, Abby Mayer. The company he founded with friends Sam Tarantino and Andres Barreto had been forced to close only a couple of months prior, on 30 April, after protracted legal proceedings over copyright infringement, but police ruled there were no signs of foul play or suicide at the time.
Torres will be sentenced next month, on 16 October, by Florida judge Joseph Bulone.
