Gainesville Police have arrested a man in connection to his adoptive mother’s murder.
Police charged Darryl Dewayne Scott, 40, with murder and grand theft auto, according to a GPD news release.
The investigation started after a group of friends found Roxie E. Scott-Kotb, 63, of 3301 SW 13th St. Apt. U282, dead in her Bivens Cove apartment Jan. 13, GPD spokesman Ben Tobias said.
Police determined that Scott-Kotb was dead in her apartment for more than a week, and her 2007 Mercury Milan and purse were missing, Tobias said.
Family members told police that Scott lived with Scott-Kotb until she kicked him out three months ago when she noticed he misused her credit cards, Tobias said.
On Jan. 14, police stopped Scott-Kotb’s car just after midnight, according to the release. The group in the car told police that Scott let them use the car in exchange for crack cocaine.
Later that day, investigators found that Scott stole a car from his workplace, Gator City Motor, on the 1700 block of North Main Street, according to the release.
Police continued the investigation and learned that Scott used Scott-Kotb’s credit cards and traveled to New York. Detectives issued an arrest warrant for Scott Jan. 15, Tobias said.
On Sunday, an Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrested Scott at a gas station in Orange County, Tobias said.
The deputy saw the car’s temporary license plate was altered with marker, and after running the correct plate number through a police computer, he learned the car had been reported stolen.
Deputies booked Scott into the Orange County Jail at about 6 p.m. Sunday. As of Tuesday, he remained in custody without bond.
Tobias said Scott would be transferred to the Alachua County Jail sometime this week.
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
