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Bobby Kent (May 12, 1973 - July 15, 1993) was an American who was murdered by seven others, including his best friend, Martin Joseph Puccio, Jr. (born March 21, 1973), in what is now Weston in South Florida. Kent attended Cooper City High School in Cooper City, Florida.

According to Tim Donnelley, who tried all the conspirators for his murder, one attorney described Kent as "very Eddie Haskell like. Adults saw him one way (polite and charming) while the kids saw him a completely different way."

Marty Puccio was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Hollywood, Florida. He is an Italian-American and was raised Roman Catholic. Kent and Puccio had known each other since third grade, had lived on the same block in Hollywood in Broward County since that time, and were good friends as adults. Bad blood, however, existed between the two. Puccio felt "ill-will and hatred" towards Kent because he would bully and pummel Puccio. Both sets of parents were wary of the friendship as well. Puccio's parents, Martin Sr. and Veronica, were cautious because Marty often returned from being with Kent with bruises or bleeding. Fred Kent thought of Puccio as a wayward slacker who had no future (Puccio was a high school dropout) and felt the friendship with his son would destroy the future he was helping him build. Both boys were avid body builders and steroid users, the latter which, according to testimonial accounts, significantly contributed to Kent's erratic, aggressive behavior.

Kent and Puccio had also delved into making homosexual porn movies in the hopes they could sell them to local shops to earn extra money. Neither Kent nor Puccio actually participated in these movies, but rather allegedly directed them and coaxed Harry Suiter, a Florida man in his early 40s, to perform on camera. Kent tried to peddle the movie, entitled Rough Boys, to porn shops across South Florida. However, none took him up on the offer due to the poor audio and video quality as well as the lack of any sexual activities in the film beyond Suiter dancing nude and playing with a dildo.^[1]

Contents 1 Murder 1.1 Book and movie 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Murder

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A few weeks prior to his death, Kent began having sexual relations with Alice Jean "Ali" Willis, best friend of Puccio’s girlfriend, Lisa Connelly. Willis moved back with her parents in Palm Bay, Florida, and broke up with Kent after he allegedly forced her to watch a graphic homosexual porn movie while he had rough sex with her. Kent reportedly said he was going to murder her and smother her baby unless she returned to Broward County to date him. Willis returned; she and Connelly concocted a plan to kill Kent. The girls obtained a gun (Connelly's mother's gun which Lisa stole from her for that night) and lured Kent to a rock pit in west Broward, but backed out at the last minute.

The plan was for Willis to seduce Kent; while the two were having sex, Connelly would sneak up behind Kent and shoot him. Connelly allegedly later said that she did not shoot Kent because the police can trace bullet fragments to the gun they originally came from.

The next day, July 15, 1993, a wider circle of friends conspired to kill Kent, including the newly recruited Derek Kaufman, an alleged gang leader and Mafia hitman. Prior to meeting the group, Kaufman had had no association with Kent, Puccio or any other member. The group again lured Kent to the rock pit in an undeveloped area in Western Broward County, Florida (at the time in the early stages of being developed as a subdivision), which is now the neighborhood of Weston.

Puccio had told Kent that they were going to race cars (specifically Willis's high-powered 5.0 Ford Mustang) and that Willis wanted to have sex with him again. That night, despite blistering Florida summer heat and humidity, Puccio was dressed in black jeans and a black trenchcoat with a red bandana tied around his head. According to Willis, "Marty [Puccio] came out of [his] house looking like Rambo."

Sometime around midnight, Willis led Kent away from the group down by a canal that ran up against the area. Heather Swallers then was instructed by Derek Kaufman to join them and figure out if Kent suspected anything. If she felt he didn't, Kaufman told her to ask Kent if there were any alligators in the canal. Once she did that, the murder would commence. Swallers asked Kent if the canal had any alligators and Kent sarcastically told her she should go skinny dipping and find out for herself.

Almost immediately afterwards, Donny Semenec charged Kent and stabbed him from behind in his neck. Kent whirled around and called out to Puccio for help saying, "Marty, whatever I did, I'm sorry." Puccio then stabbed him in the abdomen, and when Kent tried to flee, Semenec, Kaufman, and Puccio tackled him and stabbed and beat him. Several times during the murder, Kent begged Puccio for mercy, but Puccio continued. While Kent was down, Puccio cut his throat and hit his head against the ground so hard he fractured a vertebra in Kent's neck.

Kaufman delivered the final blow with a weighted baseball bat to the head. Kent's body was then dumped into a canal; however, there are conflicting reports over who did it, either Kaufman and Derek Dzvirko (Lisa's cousin who was also along) or Kaufman and Puccio.

Dzvirko was also the one who led Detective Frank Illaraza of the Broward Sheriff's Office to Kent's body a few days later.

Conspirators

Conspirator's name	Date of Birth	Annotations
Martin Joseph (Marty) Puccio	March 21, 1973	Kent's best friend since childhood, boyfriend of Lisa Connelly.
Lisa Marie Connelly	July 31, 1974	Marty's girlfriend. She was angry at Kent for beating and bullying Marty as well as allegedly raping her best friend, Alice Willis. Kent was also known to commonly refer to Connelly (who was overweight) as "fatass", "tatonka," "potlock" "chub" and "Shamu," often encouraging and/or forcing Puccio to do the same. On January 5, 1994 Lisa Connelly, who was Puccio's girlfriend, gave birth to their daughter. She is in the custody of Connelly's parents in Central Florida.
Ali Willis	August 29, 1975	Kent's former girlfriend, set up with Kent by Connelly in the hopes that if he was with her, he'd leave Puccio alone. Allegedly involved in a teenage prostitution ring prior to Kent's murder.
Donald Roth (Donny) Semenec Jr.	July 15, 1975	Willis' boyfriend at the time of the murder, habitual drug user, supposedly helped in the murder because he was angry at Kent for raping his girlfriend. Struck the first blow on Kent. Murder occurred on his 18th birthday.
Derek Leon Kaufman	May 8, 1973	Self-proclaimed mafia hitman who the group enlisted to plan Kent's murder. Had no association with any of the other conspirators prior to this. Was actually the leader of a gang of youths seven-to-10 years his junior, who committed petty crimes such as theft.
Derek George Dzvirko	November 2, 1973	Connelly's cousin who was enlisted for extra help by Connelly. Played a minor role in the murder, borrowed one of the baseball bats used to kill Kent from a friend. Along with Swallers, was offered and accepted a plea bargain in exchange for testimony that would help convict others in the group. The two were originally promised the same prison sentence, however Dzvirko got four extra years for attempting to lie on the witness stand.
Heather June Swallers	May 24, 1975	Previous friend of Willis who had just gotten out of drug rehab. The member of the group deemed by the State of Florida to be the least culpable for Kent's murder. Had no participation in the murder itself and ran and hid in Willis's car once it started. Cut the same plea bargain as Dzvirko did and got the promised sentence because unlike him, she did not lie during her testimony.

The co-perpetrators were convicted and sentenced as follows:

1. Heather Swallers

   second-degree murder and conspiracy (seven years imprisonment); Released February 14, 1998

2. Derek Dzvirko

   second-degree murder and conspiracy (11 years imprisonment) Released October 1, 1999

3. Alice Willis

   second-degree murder and conspiracy (40 years imprisonment, which was commuted on appeal to 17 years in prison. She was released on parole on September 16, 2001 and is currently under community supervision for 40 years)

4. Donald Semenec (aka Day)

   second-degree murder and conspiracy (life and 15 years imprisonment) currently serving life sentence^[2]

The perpetrators were convicted and sentence as follows:

1. Derek Kaufman

   first-degree murder and conspiracy (the jury recommended life and he was sentenced to life and 30 years imprisonment) He is incarcerated at Mayo/C.I. DC number 894391

2. Lisa Connelly

   second-degree murder and conspiracy (life and five years imprisonment, which was reversed on appeal and reduced to 22 years; she was released on parole on February 3, 2004).

3. Martin Puccio

   first-degree murder and conspiracy. He was sentenced to death by electric chair but it was commuted on appeal to life in prison. He is incarcerated at Desoto Annex DC number 963022.

[edit] Book and movie

The murder resulted in a best selling true crime book in 1998, Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge (ISBN 0-380-72333-6) written by Jim Schutze. The book was adapted by Zachary Long (a pseudonym used by David McKenna after he demanded his name be removed from the film^[3]) and Roger Pullis into the 2001 film, Bully. The story was also covered during an A&E Television crime special.

In the film, Puccio was portrayed by the late Brad Renfro, Kent was portrayed by Nick Stahl, Willis was portrayed by Bijou Phillips, Connelly was portrayed by Rachel Miner, Semenec was portrayed by Michael Pitt, Swallers was portrayed by Kelli Garner, Dzvirko was portrayed by Daniel Franzese, and Kaufman was portrayed by Leo Fitzpatrick.

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (January 2009)

[edit] External links

• Murder of Bobby Kent at Find a Grave
• Martin Puccio's entry from the Florida Department of Corrections Inmate Population Information Detail Offender Search
• Decision on Appeal leading to vacating the Death Penalty.