Phillip Stapleton, inset on the left, Aurelio Diaz, inset on the right, and Ashley Voss, center, with her two boys. (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office; GoFundMe)
A second Florida man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a young mother of two who was shot in the back in her own car in late July, authorities announced this week.
Phillip Stapleton, 32, stands accused of one count each of principal to murder in the first degree and conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release. The defendant was arrested on Monday with the assistance of deputies from the nearby Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
“This arrest is another example of the tenacity with which our detectives continue to pursue leads to crimes here in Hillsborough County,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said on Monday. “Our team works each tip relentlessly to remove any danger they can to the community that we serve.”
The first man arrested in the case, Aurelio Diaz, Jr., 32, stands accused of one count of premeditated murder in the first degree, according to the HCSO, for the fatal July 20 shooting of Ashley Voss, 22.
The victim died in front of her grandmother’s home on Orange Street. In the moments before she died, during a text message conversation with Stapleton – who is the father of her younger boy – Voss said she had decided to hang out in her car after work because it was “too comfortable” there, a criminal report affidavit in Diaz’s case alleges.
“Detectives noted the victim was sitting on her cellular phone, which was powered on,” the affidavit reads. “Detectives were able to access the phone and confirm numerous back-and-forth text messages.”
Stapleton, in a series of interviews with police immediately after the shooting, said that Diaz had shot and killed the mother of his child after only being instructed to “prank” her by defecating on her grandmother’s front doorstep, the affidavit says. Stapleton, then a witness against Diaz, admittedly drove Diaz to the neighborhood in question but claimed he had never discussed any kind of violence against Voss.
“[Stapleton] stated when he picked up the defendant they planned to go to the victim’s residence and for the defendant to defecate on the victim’s front porch,” the affidavit reads. “[Stapleton] pointed out the victim’s residence, and the defendant later exited the witness’ vehicle to defecate on the victim’s porch. [Stapleton] stated at no time did he talk to the defendant about killing the victim, shooting the victim, or harming the victim. They were only playing a ‘prank’ to have the defendant defecate on the victim’s porch.”
Law&Crime filed a public records request for information on Stapleton and his relationship to the Voss case with the relevant HCSO sub-agency prior to the second arrest. The sheriff’s office, in turn, supplied several documents that were almost wholly redacted.
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Details on the circumstances of Stapleton’s arrest – and the preceding investigation that led to it – are currently scarce. Law&Crime reached out to the HCSO for additional details and comment on Stapleton’s alleged involvement but those inquiries were transferred to the public records department; an extant open records request for Stapleton’s arrest affidavit was already pending at the time.
The previously-obtained Diaz affidavit, however, likely sheds some light on the criminal inquiry into, and charges against, Stapleton.
“Through the course of [an] interview with the victim’s family it was learned that the victim’s child’s father, later identified as the witness, Phillip Stapleton, had threatened her in reference to an ongoing child support issue,” that law enforcement document reads.
According to the affidavit, Stapleton made a “controlled phone call” to Diaz that was recorded by law enforcement. Diaz, at one point during the call, allegedly told Stapleton: “I did it just like I told you, walked up to the back window, and boom.”
But the victim’s family never bought the line about Stapleton’s self-professed lack of involvement in the shooting.
“There was no motive,” Rhonda Voss, the deceased’s grandmother, told Tampa Bay-based Fox affiliate WTVT. “Diaz did not know, actually her. Well, he knew her, but they were not close. You know, it’s not something where something could have happened or something could have transpired that would have made him murder her.”
Ashley Voss was in Rhonda Voss’ driveway the night she died. Now, her grandmother is taking care of the 22-month-old who just lost his mom; Voss’ maternal grandmother is taking care of the 4-year-old.
The victim’s family has set up a GoFundMe to help defray the cost of funeral expenses and to help provide for the children.
Diaz is being detained in the Hillsborough County Falkenburg Road Jail without bond. Stapleton briefly appeared in Pasco County booking records but is being extradited back to Hillsborough County.
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