Man linked to Lyft driver murder charged with first-degree murder in separate case

HARDY COUNTY, Florida. The man who police said was driving the dead Palm Beach Gardens Lyft driver was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and other counts in a separate case.

According to court records, a grand jury in Hardy County indicted Matthew Flores, 35, on charges of second-degree murder, grand larceny, possession of a firearm by the perpetrator and falsification of evidence. The potential for a first-degree charge makes him eligible for the death penalty.

The charge concerns the January 24 fatal murder of 43-year-old José Carlos Martinez in Wachula. Police were actively looking for Flores in the case by Jan. 30, when 74-year-old Lyft driver Gary Levin went missing after dropping off a client in Okeechobee, about 70 miles east of Vochula.

Levin’s red 2022 Kia Stinger has been spotted in Miami, Okeechobee and Gainesville in northern Florida after it went missing. The vehicle was stopped on Feb. 2 in North Carolina, where the US Marshals Regional Task Force asked authorities to be on the lookout. Flores, who was driving the vehicle, was arrested following a three-county police chase, officials said. The body found in Okeechobee after Levine went missing was ultimately identified as the driver, the family said.

No charges have been filed for Levin’s disappearance and death.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement did not even release the cause of Levin’s death.

Flores was being held in custody in Rutherford County, North Carolina on $2 million bail, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on charges including driving Levin’s stolen Lyft car and a felony charge of leading the police in a high-speed chase.

He will also have an extradition hearing to Florida on Wednesday.