WAFC Local News – December 18, 2025, 8:32 AM
Transcript
I’m Charles Murphy reporting. An arson fire turned into a murder for hire plot in two arrests in Henry County. Sheriff’s deputy charged 60-year-old Joseph Fajardo with paying subjects to burn the trailer in October. The trailer had no electric hookups and there was evidence the door had been pried open. Detectives also found accelerant on the floor inside. It was a total loss but no one was there so no injuries. Fajardo is accused of offering to pay two men to kill a competitor in the chicken business who owned this trailer. Henry County investigators say they have video and audio recordings of the transactions to burn the trailer and murder the victim. Fajardo allegedly told the apparent hitman, you have the funds and I have the plans. He also denied any knowledge of the murder for hire plot when interviewed. He is facing arson and conspiracy to commit murder charges. 48-year-old Orlando Rivera was also charged with conspiracy and arson. He says Fajardo paid him to kidnap and bring the victim to him so he could kill him. The investigation found the hitman would shoot the victim in Loxahatchee and place his body in a barrel of acid to get rid of it. Cluesson vice mayor Hillary Highslope and community activist Roley Gonzalez traded barbs at a recent commission meeting. Gonzalez says Highslope slammed him on social media and she called him wanting to talk. Gonzalez says he only wants the city to be transparent. It’s an honest transparent platform. I know that this town I know that this town people have in a communist country they speak negatively of you so they can tear you apart but once those residents and those people have got to know who I am then once they sit down with me they have a change of heart. Highslope wants to resolve things with Gonzalez for the betterment of the community. I am extending an olive branch. I uh I would like to speak with you regarding your take on uh the other night’s meeting. Gonzalez played that phone message before the city commission. Clates county school board planning an open house on the new Moorhaven elementary school tonight at 6 p.m. Teachers will be moving their classrooms in on Saturdays and over the holiday to be ready in January. Superintendent Beth Barfield says they’ll have a ribbon cutting and then go inside for a an event. The grand opening is by invitation only there’ll be about 150 people there. The joint city county waste authority next week will discuss invoices sent to the school district for the new Moorhaven elementary school that haven’t been paid. The schools have paid the water bill for the improvements needed but not the electrical and sewer bills. Moorhaven city attorney Steve Ramouni talked about the electric and sewer bills to city council. We’re going to add it to the agenda to determine what happens. You cut the school off before they even open because they haven’t paid these charges. That meeting is five o’clock on Monday. A Fort Denote teen will face charges in Glades county from a serious car accident on December 2nd. 19-year-old Wyatt Milks was charged with DUI with property damage, DUI with injury and child neglect. The accident on Loblolly Bay Road resulted in the vehicle flipping over several times. There are beer cans along the route where the car overturned and a one-year-old child was injured. There was no car seat or booster seat in the vehicle. Wilk’s blood alcohol was 0.166 when he was tested at Gulf Coast Medical Center. I’m Charles Murphy, WAFC News.
Recorded from the WAFC daily newscast (Glades Media).