Arkel Garcia – who was freed after his life sentence was vacated in an infamous 2013 killing – is set to face new murder charges after he was seriously injured in a shooting and stabbing over the weekend.
Police said Garcia, 32, will be charged with murder for the November beating of a 58-year-old man inside his Northwest Philadelphia apartment. He is also considered a “strong person of interest” in the homicide of a man who was found in a burning Florida house, according to law enforcement in the Sunshine State.
Authorities took Garcia into custody after he was hospitalized in critical condition with gunshot and stab wounds just after 3 p.m. Sunday.
Investigators said Garcia and several other people got into a fight inside a Germantown house; the altercation spilled into a nearby retail store parking lot, along the 5200 block of Germantown Avenue.
A 37-year-old man told investigators he acted defensively in shooting and stabbing Garcia, who had allegedly shot a 34-year-old man in the arm and threatened other individuals. That man arrived at a local hospital and was treated for nonlife-threatening injuries.
So far, authorities have not filed charges against Garcia’s shooter.
On Nov. 14, prosecutors issued a warrant charging Garcia with murder, robbery, burglary and related crimes for the killing of David Weinkopff, who was discovered unresponsive the previous morning inside his home on the 4900 block of Stenton Avenue, according to the PPD.
Weinkopff had multiple cuts and contusions to his face and head, and medics pronounced him dead at the scene, investigators added. Police classified the motive as robbery.
Two weeks later, on Nov. 28, 51-year-old Antwan Daniels died of blunt force trauma and smoke inhalation following an arson in Fort Pierce, Florida. St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard Del Toro Jr. referred to Garcia as a “strong person of interest” in the killing during a Dec. 18 news conference.
Del Toro indicated that Daniels may have known Garcia, but his department has not released other details about the circumstances of the case.
Garcia was ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars in 2015 after a jury found him guilty of fatally shooting 21-year-old Christian Massey over a $300 pair of “Beats by Dre” headphones two years earlier in Overbrook.
The case garnered significant local and national headlines, as Massey was a beloved athlete with special needs who had just purchased the headphones a day before. The "Beats" device was left at the scene.
But, in 2021, a judge, siding with District Attorney Larry Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit, agreed to throw out the murder conviction, due to allegedly tainted evidence provided by disgraced PPD detective Philip Nordo. The DA’s Office declined to retry the case.
Garcia’s attorney accused Nordo of asking the then-teenager to watch pornography with him during a closed-door interrogation that resulted in a confession, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Krasner’s office said the case against Garcia hinged on that tainted confession and testimony from a confidential informant linked to Nordo, with no forensic or eyewitness evidence.
Nordo was sentenced in 2022 to 24-and-a-half to 49 years in prison after being convicted of rape, sexual assault and related charges. At least 10 individuals have been exonerated based on the DA’s review of investigations involving the detective.
Representatives from the DA’s Office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the recent allegations against Garcia.
Garcia was not immediately released when his murder conviction was overturned; rather, he was forced to remain in prison until 2024.
He had separately received five-to-15 years in jail after pleading guilty to punching a sheriff’s deputy and attempting to steal the officer’s gun after the verdict was announced in the Massey case.
