Pals seen ‘smiling’ after gunning down firefighter: DA
Pals seen ‘smiling’ after gunning down firefighter: DA
Publish Date: 2026-05-20 15:33:00
Source Domain: lawandcrime.com
Insets, left to right: Jose Garcia Romero, Christopher Randazzo and Torrey Holston (Instagram/Coral Springs Fire Department/Broward County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The area where Florida firefighter Christopher Randazzo was found face down with no shoes, wallet, keys, or phone after being shot and killed (WPLG/YouTube).
A 19-year-old Florida man and his 20-year-old pal allegedly killed an off-duty firefighter for his iPhone, Nike sneakers and wallet then applauded each other for how they “caught a body,” with a witness saying she saw them “smiling about it.”
Torrey Holston, now 26, and Jose Garcia Romero, now 27, are currently on trial for murder in connection with the deadly 2019 robbery, which left Coral Springs-Parkland firefighter Christopher Randazzo dead outside a resort in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
Court records viewed by Law&Crime describe how the two young men left Randazzo — a 39-year-old “firefighter/paramedic,” according to CSFD officials — face down with no shoes on after killing him for his “red Nike sneakers,” iPhone and wallet, which had $55 inside. They also swiped his car keys, police and prosecutors say.
“I can’t believe I caught a body,” Holston boasted after the slaying, according to witness Cheyenne Papach, who was also present and dating an accomplice who was with the two men. The local independent TV station WPLG covered her testimony this week.
“He was smiling about it,” Papach alleged about Holston, noting how he and Garcia Romero seemed very pleased over the murder and were boasting about it, according to WPLG.
Papach’s boyfriend, Marco Rico, pleaded guilty in 2020 to accessory after the fact and conspiracy charges. He was driving a Nissan Sentra that Holston and Garcia Romero — nicknamed “Six” and “Cobra” — allegedly fled in after shooting Randazzo.
“Papach told the detectives that Six and Cobra stole from a guy they found sleeping on some steps, and that she had heard one shot when victim Christopher Randazzo…
