GAINESVILLE, Fla. – According to The Gainesville Sun, the man convicted of killing a University of Florida student in a Walmart parking lot and then burying his body in a Levy County forest died in prison while serving a life sentence.
The death of Pedro Bravo, 31, is currently under investigation by the inspector general of the Florida Department of Corrections, the Sun reported.
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Bravo, who was 20 years old when he went on trial for murder, died at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution.
Back in August 2014, Bravo was convicted of strangling his friend, 18-year-old Christian Aguilar, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
According to The Gainesville Sun, Bravo denied killing Aguilar but said he would accept his fate at the time of trial.
The two had known each other since middle school in Miami-Dade County and wound up in Gainesville at the same time for college.
News4JAX previously reported that prosecutors claimed Bravo plotted to kill Aguilar after learning he was dating Bravo’s ex-girlfriend, whom both had known during their days together at Doral Academy.
When speaking about his ex-girlfriend Bravo said, “Erika (Friman) went to Gainesville and I still loved her. I was very enamored with her and I wanted to get back with her.”
During his trial Erika claimed the only reason she communicated with Bravo was because he was acting suicidal.
Aguilar’s body was found three weeks after he was reported missing. His remains were partially buried in a remote field.
Detectives told Channel 4 that they had enough cause to charge Bravo with murder because his statements about beating the teen were enough to assume Aguilar was dead.
A police report obtained by Channel 4 revealed that Bravo stated that “he had punched the victim (Christian Aguilar) in the face with his fist and forced him to get out of his vehicle during the argument...He attacked the victim and beat the victim for ten to fifteen minutes...The def (Bravo) stated that he was unconscious on top of the victim punching him until the victim lost consciousness. The def stated that the victim was barely breathing and not moving, lying on his back, partially in water, at the time that the def left him.”
Investigators said they found blood inside Bravo’s blue Chevrolet Blazer and found Aguilar’s backpack inside a suitcase in Bravo’s apartment.
Store surveillance video captured Bravo purchasing duct tape, a hunting knife, intoxicating over-the-counter drugs and a shovel.
Soil samples from the shovel matched dirt from the grave site and dirt on Bravo’s vehicle, which he took to a car wash in the overnight hours of the day Aguilar was reported missing.
It took jurors about three hours to reach a guilty verdict on a first-degree murder charge and six other counts Pedro Bravo was also facing.
He was charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping, illegally transporting a dead body and providing false statements to law enforcement.
