After a three-day trial last week, a Volusia County jury found Young Guns defendant Aziz Felder guilty as charged of First-Degree Murder and Kidnapping. Immediately following the verdict, Felder was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the brutal crime.
In July 2019, Felder, who was only 19 years old at the time, and his four co-defendants tortured the victim, Randy Mueller, for several hours at his Daytona Beach apartment over missing marijuana.
Daytona Beach Police went to the apartment a few days later after receiving a request for a well-being check. Officers then found Mueller dead, lying face down on the bathroom floor. His hands were tied behind his back and there was a plastic bag over his head. The victim also had a gunshot wound to the head.
“Felder kidnapped, tied up, beat, burned and shot our victim,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the defendant. “There is no adequate punishment for such stark and merciless brutality.”
The Central Florida case was investigated by the Daytona Beach Police Department. Assistant State Attorneys Andrew Urbanak and Mike Willard successfully tried the case for the State. The Honorable Dawn Nichols presided over the case and pronounced sentence.
One of Felder’s co-defendants, Dionysius Nicols, was convicted by a jury of the same charges and was sentenced to 35 years in prison in November 2022. Another, Julian Fadley, pled to Second-Degree Murder (Firearm) and Kidnapping and was sentenced to 40 years in prison in March 2023.
UPDATE: Another Young Guns defendant, Trequan Braswell, was found guilty as charged of a shooting that paralyzed a Central Florida teen.
