Insets, left to right: Jose Garcia Romero, Christopher Randazzo and Torrey Holston (Instagram/Coral Springs Fire Department/Broward County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The area where Florida firefighter Christopher Randazzo was found face down with no shoes, wallet, keys, or phone after being shot and killed (WPLG/YouTube).
Two young Florida men will spend the rest of their lives in prison for killing an off-duty firefighter for his iPhone, Nike sneakers and wallet. The pals applauded each other after the slaying for how they “caught a body,” with a witness saying she saw them “smiling about it.”
“I think the jury was clear and unanimous on the involvement of both,” the judge overseeing Torrey Holston and Jose Garcia Romero’s murder case said in court at the pair’s sentencing on Wednesday. They were both given life sentences after being convicted in May of murder.
Holston and Garcia Romero were 19 and 20 years old, respectively, when they shot Coral Springs-Parkland firefighter Christopher Randazzo dead outside a resort in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea seven years ago.
The duo went on trial in May for the deadly 2019 robbery. Court records viewed by Law&Crime describe how the two young men left Randazzo — a 39-year-old “firefighter/paramedic,” according to CSFD officials — face down with no shoes on after killing him for his “red Nike sneakers,” iPhone, and wallet, which had $55 inside. They also swiped his car keys.
“I can’t believe I caught a body,” Holston boasted after the slaying, according to witness Cheyenne Papach, who was also present and dating an accomplice who was with the two men. The local independent station WPLG covered her testimony.
“He was smiling about it,” Papach recalled about Holston, noting how he and Garcia Romero seemed very pleased over the murder and were bragging about it.
Papach’s boyfriend, Marco Rico, pleaded guilty in 2020 to accessory after the fact and conspiracy charges. He was driving a Nissan Sentra that Holston and Garcia Romero — nicknamed “Six” and “Cobra” — fled in after shooting Randazzo.
“Papach told the detectives that Six and Cobra stole from a guy they found sleeping on some steps, and that she had heard one shot when victim Christopher Randazzo passed away,” a court filing viewed by Law&Crime says.
A witness who knew Holston and Garcia Romero told investigators that they referred to themselves as “real thugs” who “got guns” and weren’t afraid of using them. A police official told The Palm Beach Post after Randazzo was killed, “These kids get all doped up, and I can’t answer why they do what they do.”
Randazzo was found “lying in front of the hotel” where he was killed, according to a woman who found him. “My husband thinks he’s dead,” the woman told a 911 dispatcher.
Before the shooting, Holston described the gun he is accused of using to kill Randazzo as “my military weapon,” according to police. “We can rob him and we can shoot him,” he told Garcia Romero while Rico and Papach were present.
“I think I got him,” Holston said after shooting Randazzo. “I saw him slumped over.”
Holston and Garcia Romero were both charged with first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and criminal conspiracy.
Garcia Romero’s attorney, Jim Lewis, told the local independent television station WPLG in May that an appeal was being weighed. He said trying both men together was a “detriment,” according to WPLG.
“We had always asked to be separate,” Lewis said. “Jose Romero was never alleged to carry a gun in this incident. The co-defendant was, so to some extent, we paid the price.”
