Two major developments took place in a pair of murder cases in Volusia County on Wednesday. One man was convicted and sentenced for second degree murder in Daytona Beach, while another was sentenced for second degree murder in Ponce Inlet.
At the conclusion of a brief, two-day trial which culminated in just twenty minutes of jury deliberation, 39-year-old Chad Keene was convicted of second degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted in-state felon. He immediately received a sentence for life in prison, plus 25 years for the weapons conviction to be served concurrently.
Keene was accused of murdering his girlfriend on August 16th, 2022. The incident reportedly began with an argument near a convenience store on Oleander Ave, between the victim and a separate ex-boyfriend. She's said to have Keene to pick her up. Keene apparently walked to Glenview Blvd to meet his girlfriend, and according to the ex-boyfriend he pulled out a gun and shot her. Surveillance video supported this account, with Keene then fleeing back to his apartment.
A search warrant was issued and executed for Keene's apartment, in which detectives with the Daytona Beach Police Department reportedly found ammunition matching the shell casing at the scene, along with 'trafficking amounts' of drugs locked in a safe. Keene was arrested that evening in Ormond Beach, and charged with second degree murder, possession of a weapon by an in-state felon, possession of a firearm by a convicted in-state felon, and separate charges of trafficking in fentanyl and methamphetamine.
That arrest was Keene's eleventh time being booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail, with prior charges including false imprisonment, battery, and stalking.
Also on Wednesday, 27-year-old Tyden Guinn was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the killing of an elderly woman in her Ponce Inlet condo. On January 5th, 2022, when Guinn was 24 years old, he's said to have snuck into her condo along with his co-defendant, 24-year-old Micayla Yusko (then 22). Yusko was apparently the woman's caregiver, entrusted with visiting her regularly.
The pair reportedly smoked MDMA in the woman's home, before Yusko is said to have instructed Guinn to effectively execute her by shooting her twice in the head. Guinn did so, with the victim being pronounced dead from her injuries shortly thereafter at the hospital.
Yusko has already been sentenced to 60 years in prison for second degree murder and armed burglary. Guinn has now been sentenced to half a century on the same charges. "Caregiver became murderer in this sad and disturbing case," said State Attorney R.J. Larizza at the time of Yusko's sentencing. "Sometimes the people we entrust with our life take it instead.
Guinn had never been booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail prior to his 2022 arrest. Yusko had been booked once before, on an aggravated battery charge in September 2019.
