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1 year ago
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A Florida lawyer accused of murdering his father following a row at the family law firm has been found dead in his jail cell.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was charged with shooting dead his father Paul, 68, on July 1 outside their Boca Raton office.
Three months earlier Brandon had been disbarred after he was accused of stealing $450,000 from a trust in the name of his mother, Mindy Labiner.
Val Rodriguez, Brandon's lawyer, told WPTV that Brandon had been discovered early on Wednesday morning by sheriffs at Palm Beach County jail. He had hanged himself.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was found dead in his jail cell on Wednesday awaiting trial for murdering his father Paul Labiner
Brandon Labiner, 34, appeared before a judge on July 3 after his arrest on a first-degree murder charge
Brandon Labiner (right) and his father Paul. Brandon was charged with murder after his father was found shot dead outside his Boca Raton office on July 1
Rodriguez said that her client was battling a series of personal problems, including a pending divorce and the death of his only child, who was stillborn at 39 weeks.
Brandon, who worked with his father, had been left 'devastated' and 'despondent' after accepting a foreign check and wiring $100,000 to the client without doing proper checks first, resulting in the loss of the money.
He tried to make up the funds by funneling money out of his father's accounts into his own, according to the court documents filed against Brandon.
Rodriguez said that 2023 had been an unbearable year for the family.
'The year 2023 was the most tragic,' she told The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
'Father, son and grandson, all dead.'
Brandon and his father had worked together in the same law office until Brandon was forced to resign in September 2022 amid an escalating rift between them.
Paul Labiner is seen with his wife Mindy. Paul was shot and killed on July 1
Pictured is the law office of Paul Labiner on the 5400 block of North Federal Highway in Boca Raton
The father and son (pictured) were said to have had a 'fairly good father-son relationship' until around February 2022
Brandon had been a personal injury attorney, but his law license was suspended amid the theft allegations.
In May, Paul Labiner sued his son over the trust fund dispute.
In his court documents, he said they had a 'fairly good father-son relationship' until Brandon began exhibiting 'bizarre behavior' in February 2022.
Paul said in the lawsuit that his son assaulted him in May 2022, injuring his shoulder.
License plate readers identified a vehicle belonging to Brandon driving in the area of the crime on July 1.
Surveillance video showed a man arriving at Paul Labiner's law office on a bicycle just after 3pm, carrying a drawstring backpack.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was charged after a bullet-ridden body was found in a pool of blood outside the law office of his father Paul Labiner, 68. The pair are pictured together
Paul's law firm specializes in estate and trust planning and he was admitted to the Bar in 1992
The man can be seen taking a box out of the backpack, and then a gun out of the box.
The man hid behind a wall and ambushed Paul Labiner as he passed.
Paul Labiner was shot in the head and chest, and twice in the lower body, with his car keys in his hand.
Police tracked down Brandon Labiner, who was barricaded in a nearby building.
After a standoff, Brandon eventually gave himself up and was arrested.
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