A 42-year-old Florida man has been arrested for second-degree murder after allegedly strangling his 56-year-old boss with a tank top outside their workplace. Richard Dustin Barker confessed to police that he planned the killing and told officers, 'I killed the motherf—er.' The victim, Jeffrey Hubbard, was pronounced dead at the scene in Venice.
Police in Venice, Florida, responded to the 200 block of Grove Street South around 6 a.m. after a report of two men fighting. Officers arrived to find Jeffrey Hubbard unresponsive behind a trailer, a bloody white tank top wrapped around his neck. Richard Dustin Barker, who worked engine repair for Hubbard at RPM Mower Repair, exited his red pickup truck, placed his hands on his head, and admitted to the killing, as captured on body-worn camera, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Venice Police Department. Barker waived his Miranda rights and detailed the premeditated attack to detectives. He said he knew Hubbard's routine, waited outside the building as the victim left for coffee, and used a tank top tied to his wrist as a ligature while wearing a motorcycle helmet for protection. After initial struggles, Barker strangled Hubbard with his hand and then arm until he died, then placed the tank top around the victim's neck to prevent resuscitation. Authorities say Barker removed keys and a folding knife from Hubbard's pockets, washed blood from the sidewalk with a hose, and attempted to haul the body away in his truck and later a trailer retrieved from a gas station. He planned to bury the body in a remote area of Port Charlotte. Witnesses saw him dragging the body when police intervened. Barker faces charges of second-degree murder and altering, destroying, or concealing physical evidence. He is held without bond in Sarasota County Jail and scheduled for court on Friday.