Murder of Bobby Kent

Bobby Kent (né Khayam; May 12, 1973 – July 14, 1993) was a 20-year-old American man who was murdered by seven people, including his best friend, Martin Joseph "Marty" Puccio Jr (born March 21, 1973) in Weston, Florida.

Toward the beginning of 1993, Puccio (aged 20) began dating Lisa Connelly (aged 18).

Frustrated by how much time Puccio spent with Kent (aged 20) as well as Kent's treatment of Puccio, Connelly tried to distract Kent from Puccio by setting up her friend Alice "Ali" Willis (aged 17) with Kent.

Kent and Willis dated for a few weeks, but she ultimately ended the relationship because he was abusive.

In June, Puccio confided to Connelly that Kent had been abusive to him quite often over the years.

Connelly tried to convince him to end the friendship, but Puccio seemed hesitant.

By this time, Connelly knew she was pregnant with Puccio's child (refusing to believe it might be Kent's, whom she also had sex with), and was determined to pursue a permanent relationship with Puccio, who to her was "the Impossible Dream, the God of the Beach".

Allegedly, Connelly decided that Kent needed to be eliminated permanently, and began talking to Puccio and other friends about murdering him.

On July 13, 1993, Connelly called Willis and told her that "Bobby Kent was planning to come to Palm Bay, Florida, where Willis was living, to murder her and smother her baby [by a previous relationship], unless she returned to Broward County to date him again."

Willis claimed Connelly asked her to come to Connelly's house to discuss murdering Bobby Kent.

Willis went to Connelly's house and brought two friends, her current boyfriend, Donald Semenec (aged 17), and Heather Swallers (aged 18).

On the night of July 13, 1993, Puccio, Semenec, Swallers, Connelly and Willis met with Kent.

Puccio, Semenec, and Swallers became uncomfortable and left.

Connelly and Willis decided to lure Kent to a new development under construction, in nearby Weston, Florida, with the promise that he would be able to drive Willis' Mustang 5.0 and have sex with her.

Connelly had brought along her mother's pistol, intending to kill Kent while he was distracted by sexual activity with Willis, but was unable to go through with shooting him.

Despite the failed attempt, Connelly still wanted Kent dead.

Seeking assistance, she contacted a self-proclaimed hitman named Derek Kaufman (aged 20), who had been recommended by a friend of Willis.

The group met Kaufman at his home in Rolling Oaks, Florida.

They wanted him to get a gun so they could kill Kent that night, but Kaufman told them he could not procure a weapon that quickly.

Willis, Connelly, Semenec and Swallers then went back to Connelly's house and were joined by her cousin, Derek Dzvirko (aged 19).

The group continued to discuss their plans, and ultimately decided to go ahead with murdering Kent the next night, with Kaufman's assistance.

Late on the night of July 14, 1993, the seven joined at Puccio's house and finalized their plans.

Puccio contacted Kent and convinced him to come out with the group that night, with the promise that they would race their cars and that Willis wanted to have sex with him again.

The group assembled their weapons: between them, they had two knives, a lead pipe, and a baseball bat.

Around 11:30 p.m., they picked Kent up from his home and headed out to a construction site.

The murder was adapted into the 2001 film Bully.

Bobby Kent, the son of Iranian immigrants Fred and Farah Kent (originally surnamed Khayam), attended South Broward High School in the South Florida suburb of Hollywood, Florida.

According to Tim Donnelly, who prosecuted all the conspirators for this murder, one attorney described Kent as "like Eddie Haskell. All the parents loved him in the neighborhood, but the kids looked at him a different way."

Marty Puccio is an Italian-American, and was raised Catholic.

Kent and Puccio had known each other since third grade, had lived on the same block in Hollywood, Florida, since that time, and were good friends as teenagers.

Bad blood, however, existed between the two.

Puccio felt "ill-will and hatred" towards Kent, who would bully and pummel him.

Both sets of parents were wary of the friendship as well.

Puccio's parents, Martin Sr. and Veronica, were concerned because Marty often returned from being with Kent bleeding or covered in bruises.

Fred Kent thought of Puccio as a wayward slacker who had no future (Puccio was a high school dropout) and felt the friendship with his son would destroy the future he was helping him build.

Frequent gym-goers, both boys were rumored to use steroids, which, in Kent's case, according to testimonial accounts, significantly contributed to his erratic, aggressive behavior.

Kent and Puccio had experimented with making gay porn movies, hoping to distribute them to local shops.

Neither Kent nor Puccio actually participated in these movies, but, rather, allegedly directed them and coaxed a Florida man in his 40s to perform on camera.

Kent tried to peddle a movie, titled Rough Boys, to porn shops across South Florida.

None took him up on the offer, due to the poor audio and video quality as well as the lack of any sexual activities in the film beyond the man dancing nude and playing with a dildo.