Bradenton murder suspect ordered held with bond. Cops say he didn’t pull the trigger
The suspected drug dealer who told Bradenton police he shot a 21-year-old dead during a drug deal at his home is out of jail on bond.
Ande Ebalan was released from the Manatee County jail on Tuesday afternoon after bonds totaling $3,500 were posted for drug-related charges. He has not been charged with the fatal shooting, after police said he claimed self-defense.
Instead, police have charged Kyle Sutherland, 18, with felony murder in the death of his friend, Ryan Booth, 21. Felony murder is when someone is charged with a death that happens while committing certain serious felonies.
Ebalan admitted to shooting Booth, but told police that Booth attacked him when they walked into his garage and began punching him in the head and face, according to a probable cause affidavit. According to police, Sutherland corroborated that in statements he made to them.
Detectives say that Booth and Sutherland planned to rob Ebalan of the drugs instead of buying them. When Ebalan fired off two shots, they both ran but Booth collapsed in the grass near the car he had driven. Despite CPR efforts by first responders, Booth died at the scene.
Sutherland was captured by video surveillance cameras at nearby homes, according to police, knocking on nearby random doors and hiding something in a bush, which police said was counterfeit money. Police said they also found counterfeit money in the interior door handles on the passenger and driver’s side doors of the car, as well a fake gun between the front passenger seat and passenger door where Sutherland had been sitting.
Sutherland made his first appearance in court before Circuit Judge Diana Moreland via video conference on Tuesday afternoon. Moreland found probable cause for the murder charge and ordered he be held without bond.
Assistant Public Defender Destiny Prater argued that Sutherland should be allowed to post bond, saying that he had no prior record and that he was not a danger to society because he did not have a weapon.
“The only person with a weapon was Mr. Ebalan,” Prater said citing the probable cause affidavit. “
Ebalan was charged with distributing or possessing amphetamine, distributing or possessing alprazolam, better known by brand name Xanax and possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana. He did not make an appearance before Moreland because his bond was posted during the first appearance hearing before he was called up.
In the courthouse, Booth’s family filled several rows in the courtroom gallery. They were upset that the Sutherland was being charged with murder and held without bond while Ebalan was out on bond and not charged with the shooting.
Booth left behind a 1-year-old son, Laren Mathis said. Mathis’s son and Booth had grown up together and been friends since they were eight years old. Mathis said “it seems so unlikely” that Booth would have attacked anyone.
“He lived with me for years,” Mathis said. “He called me mom because I was one of his moms. There was not a lot of support in his life.”
Booth was arrested last August after a driver called 911 reporting being scared by a man, later identified as Booth, staggering in the road and waving a gun in the air.
The driver told deputies that he had seen Booth “staggering in the road so he honked at him so he could drive by,” according to the probable cause affidavit. But as he drove by, Booth pulled out a handgun and started waving it in the air. The case was still pending when Booth was killed.
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 5:00 PM.
