Businessman is charged in murder of professor

PLANTATION – A Plantation businessman who had been renting a home owned by a slain Nova Southeastern professor was arrested Friday and charged with the murder, according to a criminal defense attorney.

Randy Tundidor Sr. also was charged with kidnapping, robbery and arson, said lawyer Jim Lewis, who represents Tundidor’s son.

Randy Tundidor Jr. has been a “person of interest” in the stabbing death of Joseph Morrissey. Although he has not been charged in this case, he is being held in jail on charges of violation of probation in an earlier case.

Morrissey, 46, died during what police believe was a home-invasion robbery. The assailant, who tied up both Morrissey and his wife, Linda, torched the kitchen before fleeing, splashing gasoline to accelerate the burn.

Police say an intruder got into the couple’s home in the 600 block of Northwest 75th Terrace after midnight Tuesday, abducted the couple and forced them to drive to an ATM and withdraw money.

The robber, who had a gun, and the couple then went back to the home, where the assailant killed Morrissey.

Initial reports indicated that Morrissey had been shot, and witnesses reported hearing gunshots, but the Broward Medical Examiner found multiple stab wounds.

Linda Morrissey escaped with the couple’s 5-year-old son and later led firefighters to her husband’s body on a patio outside the kitchen.

Plantation Police wouldn’t discuss a motive and could not be reached Friday night.

But they spent Thursday and Friday searching the family business, Gator Tint and Sound, a car window tinting company.

Tundidor agreed to have his business searched by police, giving them the key, attorneys said.

Lewis said the arrest happened at Randy Tundidor Sr.’s home, which he rented from Morrissey.

Tundidor was taken to the Plantation Police Department, Lewis said, although he added that Tundidor was having breathing problems and might at one point go to a hospital.

Earlier in the day, attorneys for the Tundidor family professed the son’s innocence.

Tundidor Jr. has had a problem with cocaine, his lawyer said. He has been arrested five times before in Florida, according to state criminal records.

He was on probation for a burglary case in 2006, Lewis said, in which the victim was his stepmother.

The case went to court in 2007. He was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder and he went to drug rehabilitation for cocaine use.

Despite all that, his attorney says, there’s no way Tundidor Jr. committed the murder.

“Everything we know, the young man is absolutely innocent,” Lewis said, saying he couldn’t get into specifics about where Tundidor was at the time of the crime.

“I’ve represented him in some minor scrapes,” he said. “No one who knows him thinks he’s capable.”

Tundidor Jr. was locked up Thursday for a parole violation for failing to report to his probation officer. It had been about six months since he had reported, Lewis said.

He was taken into custody by a SWAT squad in the middle of eating a lunch of chicken fingers and fries.

Witnesses said he was acting very fidgety and kept moving tables. He also was holding a large wad of cash in his hands.

As police took him into custody, the man never said a word. In the commotion, the wad of cash he’d clutched in his hands — exactly $152 — spilled onto the floor, along with a pack of Newport cigarettes and a red lighter.

Other than Tundidor Sr. renting the property from Morrissey, there is apparently no other link between the men.

The son was described as lacking a permanent address and essentially “homeless.” He had stayed in what was described as an efficiency at the father’s business.

Miami Herald staff writer Jennifer Lebovich contributed to this report.