Vincent: This is the craziest thing I've ever like experienced in my life. Yeah like –

Detective: Yeah. Alright. This is in reference to case number 20-17904. The date is February 27 2020. The time is approximately 17:49 hours. I am located at the Tealwood Apartment Complex at uh, what's the building number? 474 – uh Tealwood Apartment Complex. I am talking to the resident of apartment – one of the residents. Sir, can you give me your name, please?

Vincent: Uh, it’s Vincent Battaglia.

Detective: And what's your date of birth, sir?

Vincent: [redacted] 1999.

Detective: Alright, is it okay if I call you Vincent?

Vincent: Of course.

Detective: Okay, well, like I said my name is Scott Lowen and I'm the homicide detective with the sheriff's office. Please just call me Scott.

Vincent: Alright.

Detective: Obviously we're out here today, uh, talking about an incident that occurred with the residents of apartment three, which are your direct next door neighbors –

Vincent: Yes.

Detective: – correct?

Vincent: Yes.

Detective: Okay, um… I just want to kind of preface and start out with a couple of different uh basic questions. How long have you been living in apartment [redacted]?

Vincent: Uh, the end of January was a – was a year, so a little o– about a year and a month.

Detective: Year and a month?

Vincent: Mmhm.

Detective: Okay and um, your apartment from what I can see is a single story apartment. It's not a townhome like your neighbors, correct?

Vincent: Yes. No it's a single story. Yeah.

Detective: Okay. Is your bedroom the one in the back next to the back wall?

Vincent: Yeah it's the one where you can like see the kick out from the back patio of their apartment there yeah.

Detective: That's what I was wondering. So your bedroom is right next to their back patio?

Vincent: Yes, yes.

Detective: So you get to hear everything that's going on in the back patio or is it under –

Vincent: On the back patio and the living room because their living room at the bottom of their stairs is right next to where my my head lays on my bed.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: So, literally and it was like an every night thing, you know with the like the beat– and it wasn't even just him on her, it was like they were going at it like at each other, you know?

Detective: Oh, really?

Vincent: It was like, it was just really bad and really loud like every night, you know?

Detective: Was it– do you mean verbally?

Vincent: No, like physically. Yeah, it was like –

Detective: So what were you hearing?

Vincent: It was like… I don't, like, you know it was never like… like I couldn't physically hear like hitting you know what I mean?

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: But like, I heard like thrown up– getting thrown against the wall –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – you know or like I've heard thrown down the stairs a few times.

Detective: Oh, wow.

Vincent: Like, it's just like… and it's like that's a very clear sound, you know what I mean?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: Like you hear somebody up here get down here very fast you know?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: And it's like you just kind of know what happened.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: And it's like… and the reason that like I've never said anything about it or I was just kind of minding my own business is because I literally found out that this happened so often, and they were known by the local police here or whatever, that all the neighbors just stopped calling because the police were tired of it pretty much. Like not like tired of it, you know, but –

Detective: No, I know what you mean though. Yeah.

Vincent: It was just like, it was an every week thing, you know? Once or twice a week and so it was like… I don't know and then there was the one night I was standing on my back patio, I was smoking a cigarette –

Detective: Mmhm.

Vincent: – and then she just randomly walked over and like was, started talking to me about how she like knows I can hear stuff, and then she was just like, ‘if you ever hear anything like get really loud or whatever, like, just, you know, keep quiet about it.’ Like pretty much, like, she was like respectfully like mind, try to mind your own, like, keep it to yourself, you know? Okay.

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: I was like, whatever, you know?

Detective: You do you, I'll do me.

Vincent: Pretty much.

Detective: Yeah, I gotcha.

Vincent: You know, I go to school down here, you know? I was…

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: I'm from New Jersey. I don't live in Florida. You know? I'm just here to do my school –

Detective: Yup.

Vincent: – and live my life, you know? And it's like… so, for her to tell me like don't really pay attention, I was just like all right. You know?

Detective: How long ago was that do you think?

Vincent: Few months… Probably like three and a half, four months ago, probably? You know?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: She was just like telling me like just keep quiet like if you hear it pretty much and I was just like, whatever!

Detective: Okay. Did you ever hang out with them on the back porch prior to that?

Vincent: Yeah. Yeah.

Detective: You guys, you’ve hung out with them?

Vincent: Yeah, I have and it was like… Not for like long periods of time, but like, you know I'm a musician…

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: So like, they heard me playing guitar the one day so they asked me to come over and tune their son's guitar –

Detective: Alright.

Vincent: – so I tuned their son's guitar for them and everything and I was playing on the back porch because, you know, I write songs so they were like asking me if they can hear it and everything I was like yeah sure.

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: I had nothing going on, so… I went back there and I was hanging out with them and I was playing some guitar and I did it a few times and then I was actually in their apartment a few times. Like, he was an artist –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – and he was showing me like a bunch of his paintings and like artist drawings and stuff like that. So…

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: I mean like, they were cool people…

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: But like, there was j– there was something going on, especially with Sarah. You know, I mean, like…

Detective: Oh.

Vincent: There was something going on with her, like, you could tell you know? It was like she wasn't like all there.

Detective: Okay. Now uh, as far as like their drinking habits did you notice, would they, were they heavy drinkers? Did they drink at all

Vincent: Oh my god, woah, hey. [laughs] That's like, I mean like it was so bad– it wasn't all the time but it was like, there was some mornings where I'd be leaving for school at 9 AM and I'd like to see him like stumbling off the sidewalk right here –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – you know, like, that drunk at nine o'clock in the morning or like even earlier sometimes. It's like, it's ridiculous sometimes but I do have to say, whenever her son was around they were… That was the only, like, the times where I never saw them ever drinking but like that was the only time, you know what I mean? But like, other than that it was like they’re drunk all the time. All the time.

Detective: Drunk all the time. Okay.

Vincent: Yes.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: And it was a very visible, you know what I mean?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: Like, they were like, like, functioning alcoholics, you know what I mean? It was like –

Detective: Mmm.

Vincent: – they had to drink to get through the day –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – type thing?

Detective: Yeah. Did you, do you know their drink of choice?

Vincent: No. I– I'm not sure.

Detective: When you're hanging out with them you never [unintelligible]

Vincent: No, ‘cause like when I was hanging out in the back porch they weren’t drinking. We were just honestly sitting there and like we were smoking cigarettes and I was just like playing some guitar but yeah they weren't actually drinking that day.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: And uh even when I was in the house I didn't see anything that was like a bottle or anything that they would drink, yeah.

Detective: Okay, um how old are you?

Vincent: 20.

Detective: 20?

Vincent: Yes.

Detective: I'm going to uh make an assumption here.

Vincent: Okay.

Detective: [laughs] And I don't mean no disrespect by it.

Vincent: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Detective: I'm assuming as a 20 year old–

Vincent: Yes.

Detective: – you have smelled what marijuana smells like when it's burning?

Vincent: Of course, of course.

Detective: Now, have you ever noticed that coming from their place?

Vincent: No.

Detective: They're not, they're not smokers? They were drinkers.

Vincent: Definitely, definitely not.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: They're… I don't believe they were… towards like any type of drug, you know what I mean?

Detective: [to someone else] Good, how are you?

Vincent: I don't think they like were on any type of drug.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: You know what I mean? I– it was just like very visible like –

Detective: They were drinkers.

Vincent: – alcohol, you know?

Detective: Absolutely.

Vincent: Because like, I've had like uncles and stuff that have dealt with it.

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: So, like, I just know what it looks like to be a heavy alcoholic, you know? And it's just like that's what it looked like –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – that they just had a lot of drinking problems, you know?

Detective: I gotcha, yeah. Sorry, I’m about to sneeze.

Vincent: Oh, you're fine. God bless you.

Detective: Thank you. Um, were you home on Sunday, by chance?

Vincent: Yes. Yeah. I was home –

Detective: Did you hear anything?

Vincent: Yeah, actually. I did, yeah. That night, so… Okay, so, I was like… I was reading the article online –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – about what happened and everything and like, it's just like… that is like, that story is just like… it doesn't match like what we heard, you know what I mean?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: Like, me and my roommate heard. It's just like… it wasn't that quiet like the whole like “it was a joke or whatever” –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – like, whatever, you know. But it was, it was, it was too loud.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: Like I literally like, it – I don't know about the whole like what the suitcase deal was and everything but it was just –

Detective: Let's do this. Let's, let's, let's back you up.

Vincent: Yeah, yeah.

Detective: And I want to kind of get this to flow through.

Vincent: Okay.

Detective: Um, what time did you get up Sunday?

Vincent: In the morning?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: Sunday, I was up at 4:30. I was going to work, yeah.

Detective: Holy cow, what time do you get home?

Vincent: I got home at one o'clock.

Detective: So you were at home at one.

Vincent: Yes.

Detective: Did you take a nap or anything or you just power your way through it?

Vincent: No, no. I would, no. Cause I, I get home and then I have class the next morning on, on Monday.

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: So like, I just stay up so I don't have trouble sleeping at night.

Detective: Exactly, gotcha.

Vincent: You know what I mean? So I can power through the day, yeah.

Detective: Okay, so you get home at one.

Vincent: Mmhm.

Detective: Was there already noise going on? It was quiet?

Vincent: Yeah. It was –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: Truth– truthfully, like –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – I didn't hear anything until like – like and before, like the whole loud noise and everything –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: I just heard like the normal yelling at each other, the verbal –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: like yelling and like the whole, like arguing –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – and ‘I hate you, I hate you’ blah blah blah, whatever.

Detective: Okay. That was gonna be my next question.

Vincent: Yeah.

Detective: What kind of stuff were you [unintelligible]

Vincent: Yeah, it was just like the normal like it sounds like a normal couple –

Detective: So it wasn’t like a really elevated screaming. It was just uh –

Vincent: No, it was elevated screaming but it was like the – it was like normal, like –

Detective: Their normal –

Vincent: Yeah, it was like –

Detective: – elevated screaming.

Vincent: Yeah, pretty much yeah. [laughs]

Detective: I got you.

Vincent: Yeah.

Detective: Okay, so there – that's the normal back and forth.

Vincent: Yeah.

Detective: So that was basically going on starting when you got home.

Vincent: Um, I would say probably a little bit later in the afternoon.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: Little later in the afternoon there. Probably around like seven –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – o'clock it's like, because I feel like that's when like, the drinks are settling in and they get a little more

Detective: I gotcha.

Vincent: – violent toward each other.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: You know and it's like –

Detective: Were they outside or was this all inside, do you remember?

Vincent: It sou– like, true– like, truthfully when I'm, when I'm –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – home and stuff like, I… I'm a music producer so I'm on my laptop a lot in my room –

Detective: I gotcha.

Vincent: – you know?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: So, like, from what I heard in my room it sounded like they were directly across from me or like –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – directly across and up. So, like either in the rooms there –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – or like downstairs in the living room in that, you know, area right there.

Detective: Okay. Yeah. Did you go out on the back to smoke at all that night, smoke cigarettes?

Vincent: No, actually. I quit smoking, I smoke a vape now.

Detective: Oh, good for you.

Vincent: So, yeah I stay in my apartment now.

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: It’s just a little vape, now

Detective: Good for you.

Vincent: Yeah. Thank you. [laughs]

Detective: Uh, that's a big thing, I mean.

Vincent: Well yeah and after the law changed and everything I can't buy them anymore so I kind of got forced into it, you know…

Detective: Oh, yeah.

Vincent: So it was like this is just, like, I…I needed it to like kind of ease the cigarettes off but…

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: We're working at just trying to go completely off it –

Detective: Wow.

Vincent: – you know?

Detective: Okay, so but you're in your room uh how late did you stay up that night you think?

Vincent: I was up pretty late. I… I stay up pretty late every night, you know. I just get so lost in my music. I was up probably til like 1 AM that night, probably?

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: Or right around there, yeah. And then, like I said we were just talking about it before me and my roommate actually.

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: Um, that night right around… it was probably right around 10:30, 11 o'clock maybe –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – is when I heard like it get escalated, you know? Like it's like the voices got louder, they were yelling, yelling, whatever and then like it got quiet for a little while and then I heard this really loud like slamming noise.

Detective: Do you know about what time that was?

Vincent: Right around 11:15 it was about –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – 15 minutes [unintelligible] there you know and then –

Detective: When you say a slamming noise does it sound like something hit the wall?

Vincent: Like something like, was bouncing down the stairs between the railing and the wall

and the stairs. Like –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – all the way down. Like, you know? And it like… it was clear because like my roommate even said it too. Like, he heard it up here and it kind of went away from him and he's the front room here.

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: And I'm in the back so it was kind of like it was in the middle of the house –

Detective: Coming at you.

Vincent: – and came right at me and it was literally right next to me and I've never felt this before but that night, I was explaining to him the next day, because he had said he heard the noise and I was like dude I felt the wall shake! Like it was literally like such a powerful hit against the wall like, the wall shook –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – and I felt it and that was like something that where I was like, I kind of looked at the wall and I was just like uhhh, that was a little…

Detective: Much.

Vincent: Yeah, a little much.

Detective: Yeah. I gotcha.

Vincent: But like I thought… and this whole time I really really thought it was like… him…

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: You know what I mean, like, going off or whatever. But, I – like I said, I don't know what happened inside but that's just like what I heard –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – and it sounded like it was just bouncing you know I mean?

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: Like, down the stairs between like the wall and like –

Detective: Okay. And like that was like a quarter after 11, you said?

Vincent: Yeah it was like because we heard we heard like yelling and stuff around like 10:30, 10:45-ish –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – and then it got quiet for like 20, 30 minutes maybe? And then, naw, maybe like 15… Between 15 and 30 minutes. Around there, yeah.

Detective: No worries.

Vincent: And it was like then that loud noise and then I heard like shuffling around –

Detective: Mmhm.

Vincent: – and then just, we both heard it at the same time it just got silent and I was just like, okay, I guess it's over. You know? I guess that was like the last like… then they're done. Like, I guess they walked away from each other.

Detective: You didn't hear anything after that?

Vincent: After that, I – not… not loud enough to where I could hear it through the wall, you know what I mean? I don't know if anything happened after that –

Detective: Did you hear muffled anything or just nothing?

Vincent: No, nothing.

Detective: Or just nothing, only dead quiet?

Vincent: Nope. Dead quiet after that compared– ‘cause like you know the walls aren't thin but they're not thick.

Detective: Yeah. No, no, I got it.

Vincent: I mean –

Detective: So they could have been over there talking normally and you would never know?

Vincent: Uh, yeah because like if they're having normal conversation –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – and stuff, no, but like, when they're fighting –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – and they're arguing you can clear – It's like being on the other side of a bedroom wall, you know because it's –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – apartments and they're so close.

Detective: But at 11:15 that's the last thing you heard. Now, what you heard was a thump –

Vincent: Yeah. Right about –

Detective: – on the stairway.

Vincent: Yeah, it was right about that time, like right around 11, 11:15. Yeah, 11:15-ish, yeah.

Detective: And you were up till about one and you heard nothing else?

Vincent: I – no, nothing. I heard, like I said like a little shuffling around down there and then that was it.

Detective: Did you hear anything? Like could you make out what the – [to someone else] Hey, have him grab his buddy’s stuff, his food, please!

Vincent: Thank you.

Detective: [to Vincent] I feel bad your stuff is on the ground –

Vincent: It’s all good.

Detective: – and they're going inside.

Vincent: Thank you very much.

Detective: Um, when they were yelling earlier, could you make out anything or is it just kinda…

Vincent: It's kind of just –

Detective: – you hear a ‘wah wah wah’ [Charlie Brown adult speaking noise]

Vincent: – like I was saying it's like, like you can like hear the whole like ‘I hate you’ like, and then like, you clearly – [to someone else] Thank you, bro! [to Detective] Um, you like, you can clearly hear it like –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: Something like the ‘I hate you’s and the like the clearest like –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – cursing at each other and stuff –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – and you know

Detective: Okay. I'm gonna bring my, my partner over here.

Vincent: Okay.

Detective: Uh I'm gonna introduce her onto the recording. This is uh, Chelsey Koepsell. She's actually the lead investigator on this case. I'm going to kind of surmise what you told me for her and if at any point I'm misquoting you please stop me, okay.

Vincent: Of course, yeah, sure.

Detective: He got up, uh, Sunday morning went to work about 4:30, got home about one. Things were quiet, uh, til probably about seven. He said that, uh, then he hears the arguing. He said it's normal. He's in his bedroom. He can hear the ‘I hate you, I hate you’ going back and forth, you know, at a pretty much high volume which is their normal arguing voice. Uh, this continues on, uh, pretty much throughout the night but at right about, uh, 10:30 you hear a lot of arguing, right? It gets a little bit escalated at that point.

Vincent: Yeah, it got louder around then.

Detective: Yeah, and then right around 11:15 they hear this, uh, he hears this banging coming down the stairs. He said it's, hears bang, bang, bang. You can tell it's coming down the stairs ‘cause it starts and then it stops right next to him and when it stopped he said something just slammed the wall. He said it shook the wall. He said that was the first time he's ever felt like the whole wall shake like that. He said after that it's quiet. He was up till about one o'clock, but uh, prior to that I was just trying to – Dd you hear any threatening anything prior to that?

Vincent: I– no.

Detective: Was anybody screaming I'm gonna kill you, or?

Vincent: No, I never heard anything like that. Not that night. I've n –

Detective: Have you heard that in the past?

Vincent: No.

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: I've never, I've never– Not that I can recall, truthfully. Like I can't remember ever hearing like ‘I'm gonna kill you’ or like any type of like threat towards each other like that –

Detective: Yeah.

Vincent: – but like I've also like… It's very visible, like very visible with them –

Detective: Yeah.

Detective 2: Right.

Vincent: Sometimes they used to be, you know, like it'd be very loud arguing, you know? And then the next morning you see her outside and bruises on her face or him out here with like scratch marks everywhere or bruises everywhere you know? It's like, it's just very visible what's going on and –

Detective 2: Right.

Vincent: - everything and it was just like, like I was saying before, I just kind of– There was a time where she literally came up to me and she was like, ‘no matter like what you hear, pretty much, like, just kind of keep quiet about it’ you know? ‘Respectfully, like, mind your own business’ and I was just like, okay, you know what I mean? Like –

Detective 2: Okay.

Vincent: – you know –

Detective 2: Do you remember when that was?

Vincent: I would give about three and a half four months ago.

Detective 2: Okay.

Vincent: Yeah. Not too long ago, but not like very, very recent. You know? Yeah.

Detective 2: Right, right. Okay. well

Detective: He said the arguing was nightly.

Detective 2: Yeah.

Detective: He said the reason the front office hasn't heard anything more is because everybody just kind of gave up calling.

Vincent: Yeah, it was like the –

Detective 2: Would you complain in the past or no?

Vincent: No, I never did –

Detective 2: Yeah.

Vincent: – it was because like they've been here for so long and all the other neighbors around here were, have been here for so long and stuff and like I was, uh, I was talking to some other people that I met through the school that live in the apartment complex and everything and they were saying like you know people just don't really… like them –

Detective 2: Right.

Vincent: – all that much. You know they were like very… I guess it was just the way they came across, you know –

Detective 2: Mmhm.

Vincent: – with everybody, you know? And it was just like… They're a… the way they presented themselves –

Detective 2: Right.

Vincent: – you know, they were always drunk. Like I was saying before, like, always…

Detective 2: Always.

Vincent: Like, sun up to the sun down –

Detective 2: Yeah.

Vincent: – like, all the time and it was like I guess people just didn't really want to –

Detective 2: Interact.

Vincent: – interact.

Detective 2: Yeah.

Vincent: Because it's like, you know, I'm sure you guys have interacted with people who are very over the limit, like drunk and stuff. It gets very annoying after a while, you know? So, it's like conversations can't last more than like two minutes tops and it's just like everybody wants to go, you know? But they're always can, er, they're always consistent about like being there and that's why nobody really liked them all that much, you know?

Detective: Yeah.

Detective 2: Okay.

Detective: Is there anything that I haven't asked you about that you think would be good for us to know about this or them?

Vincent: I don't think so. I think I've pretty much, like, covered everything like that I thought was you know necessary from that night or whatever, like, what I've heard you know in the past and everything –

Detective: Okay.

Vincent: – that was just like… It was just, you could tell it's just a very violent relationship that was never gonna do any good –

Detective: Right.

Vincent: – if that makes any sense. You know what I mean?

Detective 2: Right, yeah.

Vincent: Like, it was just a very toxic relationship that had a lot of problems.

Detective: Could you do me a favor raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm everything we've talked about is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?

Vincent: Yes, sir.

Detective: Put your arm down. Uh, the time is approximately 16:08 hours when stopping the recording. What's a good form of –

Detective 2: 18:08 hours

Detective: Oh, what’d I say?

Detective 2: 16.

Detective: Sorry.

Detective 2: It's 6:08 PM.