Lake Wales, Fla. (970 WFLA) - The boy thought he was going to play the woods, but Polk County detectives say that Giovanni Diaz was lured to his death in a brutal beating Monday afternoon.
Diaz, 15, had gone into the wooded area off Caloosa Boulevard with Dillen Murray, 16. Once there, Murray beat Diaz to death with a baseball bat. A witness who saw Murray walking out of the woods told deputies that Murray said that he had just hit his friend with a baseball bat.The witness ran into the woods and found Diaz.
"This child was brutally murdered by a 16-year-old with a baseball bat," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. "There is no reasonable excuse for this. Zero. None. It should never have happened."
Judd said that Murray has a prior history of violence, including two counts of battery against Diaz in March of 2016, and one count of battery domestic violence against his father last year.