(Lake County, FL) Wednesday afternoon, 27-year-old Kevin Rasheed Richardson was found guilty by a jury of Death by Distribution of a Controlled Substance (Fentanyl) in connection with the July 17, 2021, death of 28-year-old Pavel Jesus Mata. After his conviction, Judge James R. Baxley sentenced Richardson to Life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Just shortly before midnight on July 17, 2021, deputies with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) responded to a call for service at Sarah’s Place Apartments in Clermont in reference to an unresponsive person. Upon arrival, officials located a male, later determined to be the victim, Pavel Mata, inside a vehicle in the parking lot, unresponsive. Mata was transported by emergency first responders to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased just shortly after. A medical autopsy would later reveal Mata’s cause of death to be an overdose due to the amount of Fentanyl in his system.
After speaking with the decedent’s family, it was learned that the decedent was attempting to meet with a subject named Kevin, later identified as the defendant, who also lived in the apartment complex. During their investigation, detectives conducted a cellphone forensic extraction on the victim’s phone, which yielded text messages between the victim and the defendant. The messages involved conversations related to the purchase of narcotics.
After obtaining video surveillance footage from the apartment complex, law enforcement was able to observe Richardson approaching the victim, entering the victim’s car for some time, before exiting and leaving. At no time during the video did anyone else enter the vehicle, nor did the victim exit the car. During their interview with Richardson, he told detectives that he knew the victim and admitted to being present and meeting with Mata the day of his death.
Based on the findings of this case, along with the evidence collected and interviews conducted, Richardson was arrested.
The prosecution of this case was handled by Assistant State Attorneys Kenneth Nunnelley and Dustan Geurin.
Published on 05/16/2025.