Man Charged with Homicide After Victim Dies from Cardiac Arrest

SPRING HILL – A death investigation that officials originally claimed was not a homicide has now led to the arrest of a suspect for that very charge.

On the evening of May 28th, Sheriff's Deputies responded to separate residences on Galloway Road and Bonnet Way in reference to a physical altercation that turned deadly.

According to witnesses, two men were sitting in the driveway of a residence on Galloway Road, when the victim approached the men while walking his dog. The suspect, 57-year-old Raymond Edward Garrity nudged the victim's dog with his foot several times, in an attempt to push the dog away. The two men got into a physical altercation over the dog and the victim was asked to leave. Several minutes later, the victim began suffering cardiac arrest and collapsed in the driveway of his residence on Bonnet Way.

Yesterday, Garrity was arrested and charged with Manslaughter after the medical examiner ruled the victim's death as a homicide.

R News spoke with the Medical Examiner in Leesburg and asked why a case like this would be ruled a homicide. In general terms, according to the Medical Examiner, because the victim had comorbidity factors, in this case, obesity, the battery would have aggravated any underlying heart condition. Even though the suspect did not intentionally kill the victim, and the combat was mutual, the altercation is what led to his death.

Garrity is now free on a $30,000 bond.