PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — A Port Charlotte man shot and killed his landlord Wednesday morning after believing she had been dead for days, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.
Jordan Ruddy told detectives he thought his landlord, Iliana Martinez-Castillo, was dead because he could smell a foul odor coming from her room. When she walked out of her bedroom alive Wednesday morning, deputies say Ruddy killed her.
The shooting happened at a Port Charlotte home where both Ruddy and Martinez-Castillo lived. After the shooting, Ruddy walked to a neighbor's house and asked her to call 911.
Ring camera footage captured Ruddy at neighbor Alexus Taylor's door, speaking calmly as he requested help.
Click here to see ring camera footage from Alexus Taylor's home.
"Hi, is your husband here? He's not here? Okay, could you call 911 for me?" Ruddy said in the video.
Taylor was home with her children and mother-in-law when Ruddy arrived at her doorstep.
"I just really didn't think that, just what I've been told, like that she was shot multiple times, like that just blows my mind. Like he was talking to me just completely normal, as if nothing really even happened," Taylor said.
According to court documents, Ruddy told detectives that Martinez-Castillo startled him, and he went to his room. The report says Martinez-Castillo then started yelling at Ruddy and pulled a gun on him.
The documents show Ruddy claims they fought over the weapon, and when he gained control of it, he shot Martinez-Castillo multiple times before leaving the home.
"He just came over to my house to tell me, she came to him with a gun and I guess she was shot," Taylor said in the Ring video clip.
Another neighbor, Kathi, said she couldn't believe what happened.
"It's scary. I just had no clue what was going on. And I'm the kind of trusting person that just doesn't believe in that kind of thing. I mean, that's for like TV, not real life," Kathi said.
Records show there were recent calls to the home where Martinez-Castillo wanted Ruddy evicted. However, deputies told her she would have to go to court for the eviction process.
Ruddy now faces several charges, including second-degree murder.
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