A Florida Man Took an Uber to a Hotel and Paid the Driver $100 to Wait. Then, He Committed Murder and Hopped Back In.

A Florida man recently was sentenced to serve life behind bars in connection with a fatal 2021shooting in a hotel parking.

On Oct. 25, 2021, Jamal Drummond, 23, was found suffering a gunshot wound to the head in the parking lot of a West Palm Beach Holiday Inn, according to The Palm Beach Post.

With the help of witnesses, video and audio recordings from the hotel and testimony from an Uber driver, investigators were able to identify the gunman as 29-year-old Claudio Valdiviezo Samayoa.

Enzo Ramirez, the Uber driver, told authorities Samayoa paid him $100 to drop him off at the hotel and then wait for him across the street at a gas station. Ramirez said Samayoa returned to the vehicle visibility upset around 15 minutes later.

Ramirez noted Samayoa was talking on the phone and crying, but the Uber driver speaks little to no English, so he didn’t understand what he was saying. He just drove Samayoa back to his home in Hollywood, The Post reported.

Witnesses told police they were out smoking cigarettes with the victim, Drummond, when Samayoa approached them. Samayoa asked the witnesses if they had seen a young girl and showed them a picture of her that was on his phone.

The witnesses said they hadn’t seen the girl, and Samayoa started to peek into a nearby car. Drummond yelled at Samayoa, who walked into the hotel and was seen on surveillance cameras wandering around the building and talking to someone on the phone before exiting the premises, according to the bystanders.

Moments later, shots rang out and Drummond was killed, The Post reported.

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This was the second trial for Samayoa. A jury at his first trial could not agree if he had killed Drummond. Shortly before his second trial, Assistant State Attorney Courtney Behar offered Samayoa a deal of pleading guilty to manslaughter and spending 15 years in prison.

Samayoa declined and said he wanted to fight for his innocence. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, earning an automatic life sentence in prison, officials said.