Man convicted of murdering restaurateur he met on dating app sentenced
By Claire Metz
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DELAND, Florida (WESH) — A DeLand man who murdered a popular Daytona Beach restaurant manager in 2021 will spend 45 years in prison.
Michael Harris Jr. pleaded guilty to a crime that started with a chance encounter on a dating app.
The 22-year-old did not take the stand during the sentencing hearing. He let his attorney and a defense forensic psychologist speak on his behalf. The psychologist claimed Harris did express remorse for the murder of Caribbean Jack’s Restaurant manager Bobby Scott, telling her he didn’t know why he did it.
“‘I didn’t even know what I was doing when I was doing it. I can’t believe I did something like that. I hate myself for doing it,’” defense forensic psychologist Dr. Lisa Potash recited.
Prosecutors said the victim, Scott, met his killer on a dating app in January 2021. When Scott never returned home, loved ones reported him missing. Days later, Scott’s badly beaten body was found in some woods off Old New York Avenue in DeLand. A short time after that, the defendant, Harris was found driving the victim’s vehicle with blood evidence inside. Scott’s sister asked the judge to sentence Harris to the maximum of 50 years.
“We do not want another family to have to suffer this pain of losing their loved one in a horrific way by his hands,” Lesa Hall, the victim’s sister, said.
The judge sentenced him to 45 years in the Department of Corrections.
Judge Elizabeth Blackburn acknowledged defense testimony that at just 22, Harris has already lived a difficult life with a number of issues growing up that put him on the wrong path. But she called the murder of Scott senseless. She also called the defendant’s actions the day of the murder and days afterward deliberate.
“Mr. Harris then brutally attacked the victim and engaged in a series of very purposeful actions and decisions,” she said.
Harris’s mother and sister were in the courtroom. They did not testify on his behalf and quickly left after the judge pronounced the sentence.
Harris was originally indicted on a first-degree murder charge, but in exchange for his plea, prosecutors reduced the charge to second-degree murder with a maximum prison sentence of 50 years.
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