LAKE WELLES, Florida – A 38-year-old man was arrested on charges of shooting and killing another man on Thanksgiving Day in Polk County.
Stephen Nicholas Hunt, 38 from Winter Haven, is charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after 45-year-old Stephen Edward Roberts was fatally shot from Lake Wales at his home, according to the Polk County Sheriff. Day
MPs said they responded to Roberts’ house on Lake Buffum Road in Lake Wales and found him with a gunshot wound to the head after a woman called her at about 2:30 pm who said she had come from the Hunt to the Circle. Gas station K located at 7695 Highway 60 East in Bartow after the incident.
According to the sworn statement of the arrest, the woman told MPs that she and Roberts first drove to Hunt’s home to take him to Walmart, and then went to Roberts’ house on Lake Wales. While at the Roberts house, she said she took a shower, moved to another bedroom after seeing the two talking in the master bedroom, and then heard a sound like a gunshot.
Hunt first told MPs that he went to Circle K with a witness, but did not know what happened at Roberts’ house. He then said that he “suddenly remembered” that he was with Roberts at his house when he was shot.
In his affidavit of the arrest, Hunt goes on to say that he spoke to Roberts in his bedroom when he tried to hand him the gun and asked him to “put him out of his misery.” Hunt said that in the end Roberts told him to leave and close the door, and as he walked away he heard a shot.