Defendant pleads guilty in Sun Suites hotel murder

GAINESVILLE - Hall County District Attorney Lee Darragh said Friday that a man accused in a brutal murder at a Gainesville hotel earlier this year has entered a guilty plea to malice murder charges.

Jose Antonio Garcia Flores, 29, of Gainesville, was indicted in the murder of Harmon Vonzell Lavender on January 29. Flores was sentenced Tuesday, March 10 to serve a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole for his plea.

Lavender's dismembered body was found in a room at the Sun Suites hotel on Jesse Jewell Parkway on January 10, although Lavender apparently was killed on January 7. Flores was arrested several days after the discovery of the body at the home of relatives in New York.

Darragh did not say what the motive in the murder was.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/3/286266