NEWS RELEASE                                             

For Immediate Release
December 20, 2006
Contact: Michele Nicholson
Public Information Officer
  (850) 651-7420

HOMELESS MAN CHARGED WITH DESTIN MURDER

     The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office has charged a 41-year old transient with an open count of murder. Orville Burton Horner was taken into custody Wednesday night after beating to death another transient behind the Winn Dixie Market Place at 981 East U.S. Highway 98 in Destin.

      Investigators say the victim is a 43-year-old white male from Italy . A witness says Horner attacked the man without provocation in a wooded area behind the business, beating him about the head and upper body.

      Horner claims he was jumped by the victim. He also told investigators that when the man became unresponsive after the fight, he called law enforcement, walked to the store to buy a beer and "shooter", went back to the scene, drank the beer, and waited for deputies to arrive.

      Horner's being held in the Okaloosa County Department of Corrections in Crestview.

      The victim's identity is being withheld pending location and notification of next of kin.

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