The idea is that the North Carolina district attorney’s office will dismiss the charges against this suspect, who is a person of interest in the death of Gary Levin, of Palm Beach Gardens, so that the Florida district attorney’s office has the possibility of having the suspect extradited to face the charges he already faces here for another homicide, and they are far more serious than the ones he faces in North Carolina.
Mathew Flores is accused of driving a stolen car and fleeing authorities while driving too fast in North Carolina last February. The Ruthford County prosecutor has filed papers dismissing his charges, making it more likely he will be prosecuted in a death in central Florida.
Ted Bell, Ruthford County Attorney in North Carolina, said: “We decided it was best to allow Florida to bring its murder charges first. There are victims involved, there are members of family involved, it’s a pretty big deal.”
Flores is facing a first-degree murder charge in the state of Florida and is also a person of interest in the disappearance and death of Gary Levin, a 74-year-old Lyft driver from Palm Beach Gardens. Her body was found in a wooded area on February 5 in Okeechobee County.
The prosecutor assures that if he does not carry out this legal maneuver which allows the extradition, he would probably be in North Carolina longer.
“It was very obvious that we weren’t going to be able to do anything with this case until August.”
Meanwhile, Gary Levin’s car remains in the hands of the Ruthford County Sheriff’s Office.
It should be noted that the medical examiner has not yet given the report with the cause of death of Levin, where Mathew Flores is a person of interest.