ORANGE PARK, Fla. – Three people are expected to face a Clay County judge Wednesday, on second-degree murder charges in connection with the killing of U.S. Navy Cmdr. Alphonso Doss earlier this year.
Yolinda Doss, 44, Alphonso Doss' wife, as well as Anthony Washington, 29, and Ronnie Wilson II, 33, were arrested.
Investigators said the suspects made the killing look like a burglary. They believe the suspects' goal was to benefit financially.
Detectives said Yolinda Doss hope to collect more than $1 million from Doss' life insurance. So Yolinda Doss, her boyfriend Anthony Washington and roommate Ronnie Wilson, broke into the commander's motel room where he was living.
"The detectives believe the suspects devised a plan to kill Doss, to make it appear like a burglary scene at the hotel room. The two male suspects with Yolinda Doss' assistance gained access to the victim's room, waited for the victim to arrive, while Yolinda Doss served as a look out across the street," said Chief Gary Goble with the Orange Park Police Department.
An employee of the Astoria Hotel at 150 Park Ave. found 44-year-old Alphonso Doss dead in the Orange Park hotel room about 8:45 a.m. Feb. 12.
It took time and a lot of work, but detectives said Tuesday, the woman confessed, Washington also admitted to the crime. They said Wilson wouldn't talk.
"I would like to offer our condolences to the Doss family, for their loss, and it is our sincere hope that the information today will bring some comfort to the family," said Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler.
Commander Alphonso Doss was a decorated leader in the U.S. Navy, stationed at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Before that, he led a team that assessed enemy combatants; a group credited with getting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to admit he was one of the masterminds in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Doss, who lived in Pensacola, was on temporary duty at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. Doss and his wife were separated at the time of his death, and their Southside home was placed in foreclosure last year.
Friends said Doss was about to retire.
"It's very hard to understand something like that when this guy helped serve for our country for a whole lot of years like he did and he was getting ready to retire. He was talking about his kids, and how he was going to have his granddaughter and he was going to move back to his hometown. I don't understand that," said Doss' friend, Rufus Thomas.
Thomas told News4Jax that he had an asthma attack and couldn't stop throwing up when he heard Doss' wife was responsible for his death.
"It's a shocking day, it's a very shocking day," said Thomas. Thomas said he was used to seeing Doss every day, so the past six months have been really hard on him. "He meant a whole lot to everybody around here in the community," said Thomas.
"That was unbelievable and just to think his own wife would do that is just incredible," said another friend, Michael Salem. "(Doss was) just an all-around good human being."
"It's going to be hard for me to understand for a while that his wife had something to do with his murder," said Thomas.
Doss was buried at the Jacksonville National Cemetery with full honors in what was described as a "huge" memorial event.