Lakeland Man Charged With Murder of Spouse

An argument between a couple turned deadly Thursday evening when Lakeland Police officials say Gavin Miranda shot his husband, Hugo Alberto Montero Gomez, in their apartment near Lakeside Village.

Miranda, 27, called 9-1-1 at about 9:30 p.m. to report that he had shot Gomez, 30, after he said Gomez had shoved him against a wall and choked him.

“Miranda disclosed that he went for a gun and shot the victim multiple times, emptying the whole clip into the victim,” the arrest affidavit reads. “Miranda informed the 9-1-1 operator that (he) and the victim have been having marital issues, but this was the first time the verbal altercations turned physical.”

When officers arrived at the apartment on Village Center Drive, they found Gomez lying face down on the floor in the living room with nine gunshot wounds to his back, one to the back of his leg and another to his wrist, with 14 spent shell casing littering the floor and a black handgun lying on a bed.

Miranda invoked his right to remain silent and his right to an attorney, declining to answer questions.

“Based on the facts that the victim was shot nine times in the back while he was lying face down on the floor, which clearly means the victim was defenseless, and there were bullet holes through his body and into the floor shows that the defendant, Gavin Miranda, was standing over the victim while he was shooting him,” the affidavit states.

Miranda is charged with first-degree murder and being held without bond in the Polk County Jail.