Israel Hester lived in a love triangle. He died weeks after a beating, his face crushed and his brain starved of oxygen.
Records released this week show Hester, 48, died in a hospice May 26. His accused attacker has been charged with second-degree murder.
Deputies say that attacker, Vincent Cleatance Poole, struck Hester with a large rock after Hester had thrown his wife's mattresses off the second floor of the Belle Glade, Florida, apartment building where he and his wife lived. Poole, whom reports say was in a romantic relationship with Hester's wife, started punching Hester before finding a rock.
On May 6, a deputy found Hester with no pulse in a puddle of blood. The deputy performed CPR for three minutes before Palm Beach County Fire Rescue arrived. A medical helicopter soon rushed him away to St. Mary’s Medical Center. He had to be resuscitated in the helicopter, redacted police reports show.
He never recovered. By May 22, the hospital’s staff suggested he be moved to a hospice, where he died.
On Oct. 18, a deputy was told by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office that Hester’s death was a homicide. He died of blunt force injuries to his head, facial fractures, a fractured skull, and a brain hemorrhage.
Deputies say enough evidence exists to call Hester’s killing premeditated.
Witnesses said Poole continued hitting Hester even after he was on the ground, and stomped on his head. Several readily identified Poole as the suspect, records show, but some witnesses refused to be identified for fear of retribution. They described a relentless beating.
“He said he saw Vincent pick up something large, like a brick, and hit the victim with it. He said Vincent hit the victim several more times and noticed that the victim wasn’t fighting back,” a deputy wrote of one witness. Of another witness, he wrote, “He said the victim was unconscious and he had to yell at Vincent to stop striking the victim.”
The men all lived in the same apartment building where the attack occurred.
After the beating, Poole ran away from a deputy who approached him. Deputies used a police dog and requested a helicopter to search for Poole, who ultimately turned himself in.
Poole, who is deaf, remains in the Palm Beach County Jail. He’s next due in court for motion hearings Nov. 20.
Hester is one of 84 people killed this year who appears in The Palm Beach Post's homicide tracker.
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