AUGUSTA — A Maine man owed $3,000 to the firefighter from Florida he is charged with killing, and he told police that the firefighter threatened him and his family during a game of pool, according to an arrest warrant.
Jerry Perdomo, a Seminole County firefighter and a married father of two, disappeared in Maine on Feb. 16. A police investigation began three days later, after a woman described as Perdomo’s girlfriend told police in Bangor that she last saw him on Feb. 16 with a handgun, and that he told her he was going to meet someone who owed him money.
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Police say that someone was Daniel Porter, 24, who is scheduled to make an initial appearance today in Waldo County Superior Court in Belfast to face a murder charge.
According to the affidavit, Porter told police that Perdomo was dead but would not say where his body was.
State police said they found the body Wednesday on property owned by Porter’s relatives in a rural area of Newburgh.
Warden Service Lt. Kevin Adam said the body was found by a black Labrador retriever, part of a team of four dogs and 35 officers, within 1 hours of arriving on the property Wednesday morning.
Police said they found blood samples that likely match Perdomo’s at a home where Porter was living in the small central Maine town of Jackson, about 20 miles from the town where Perdomo’s body was found.
Police said in the affidavit that Porter and Perdomo were involved in drugs and exchanged death threats in January.
Each man told investigators he had been threatened by the other.
Porter complained to police that a man he believed was Perdomo had thrown rocks at his house.
“Perdomo stated that he observed Porter with a machine gun and that Porter threatened to shoot him and put him through a wood chipper,” according to the affidavit. “Porter stated that Perdomo threatened to cut off his hands and kill him.”
Christopher MacLean, Porter’s attorney, didn’t immediately return a message left Wednesday at his office by The Associated Press.
The affidavit cites evidence that Porter drove Perdomo’s rented car to a Walmart store in Bangor and abandoned it, and threw a bag containing Perdomo’s wallet, cell phones and keys into a trash container behind a supermarket in Bangor.
Records also show that Porter and his girlfriend bought a handgun at a pawn shop on Jan. 20.
Earlier this week, in an interview from her home in Orange City, Fla., Perdomo’s wife, Tonya, described the father of 3- and 10-year-old children as “a dedicated dad. He helps people out a lot.”
The 31-year-old firefighter told his wife he was going to see friends in Maine, which she said was not unusual because he had friends from all over.
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