A St. Augustine man was arrested and charged Saturday with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 47-year-old man in Palatka.
Matthew Michael Dennis, 28, was taken into custody in connection with the death of Clifford Tennant, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded Tuesday evening to a report of a shooting in the area of Carole Road near Alabama Avenue and Roddy Road in Palatka.
When they arrived, they found Tennant deceased along a wooded trail.
A 911 caller reported hearing gunshots and discovering Tennant bleeding.
Detectives developed Dennis as a suspect early in the investigation, conducting searches and interviewing neighbors and witnesses.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team executed the warrant Friday and arrested Dennis.
“I want to commend everyone who worked on this case and the teamwork with the state attorney’s office and St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office in allowing us to quickly apprehend Matthew Dennis,” Sheriff H.D. ‘Gator’ DeLoach said. “Very early in this investigation, detectives were working tirelessly to solve this case successfully, and they did just that.
Dennis was booked into the St. Johns County Jail, where he is being held without bond.
The investigation remains ongoing.
In a separate case last October, Dennis was arrested by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office at the North Star Hotel in St. Augustine for drug raps.
Deputies made contact with Dennis while he was sitting in a vehicle with a mismatched license plate. He told officers he had a pistol on him, and a pat-down revealed a large fixed-blade knife.
A pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine was observed in plain view inside the vehicle.
A search of the car uncovered 2.56 grams of a substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine. Deputies also found three loaded firearms: a Glock .40 caliber pistol, a Springfield 9mm pistol, and a 12-gauge shotgun.
