Dennis Wilberforce Bent, 22, will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of the 2020 murder of a man in Avon Park. He was sentenced today to a life term after being found guilty of second-degree murder.
Bent shot and killed 21-year-old Christopher Anthony Reese in an ambush in the front yard of a home on Memorial Drive in Avon Park on April 16, 2020. He was arrested by Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit detectives two days after the shooting.
The investigation revealed that Bent killed Reese over a debt the victim reportedly owed Bent’s cousin. Bent, who was wearing dark clothing, ran up to Reese at approximately 9:30 that night and shot him multiple times with a handgun. Reese died at the scene. At the time of the murder, Bent was on probation after being convicted of carrying a concealed weapon on the campus of Avon Park High School in 2019
