The Boca Raton lawyer accused of killing his father was suspected of the crime by his own family because of the growing rift between the two and his own life crises, according to new details unveiled Wednesday in court records.
Brandon Scott Labiner, 34, a personal injury lawyer, was charged Sunday with premeditated first-degree murder with a firearm and remains in jail without bond.
His father was Paul Labiner, a Boca Raton estate planning and probate lawyer.
A detective interviewing Brandon Labiner’s sister and her husband wrote in the arrest report “they suspect Brandon is the suspect because Brandon and (the victim) had a bad relationship due to a legal battle they have been involved in regarding their law firm,” according to the redacted document made public Wednesday in Palm Beach County court.
Labiner’s sister and her husband also told the detective that “Brandon has been under a lot of stress” because his unborn child died, and he is going through a divorce. They detailed “issues” of Brandon hacking into the victim’s financial accounts and burglarizing the business.
Florida records show Labiner is currently suspended from the Florida bar.
Brandon Labiner’s attorney, criminal defense lawyer Valentin Rodriguez, said Wednesday that his client is “not feeling well due to medical issues.” He called it a “very sad situation when there’s a dispute between father and son.”
The location where the victim was found is at the same address as the law office of the suspect’s father, Paul Labiner.
Calls made to Paul Labiner’s law office on Monday and Wednesday went unanswered.
According to Boca Raton Police, the victim, who was not named in the report, was shot in the head, upper chest, and twice in his lower body. He was found by a family member who had been looking for him because he hadn’t shown up at Costco to meet her as planned.
His body was found in a breezeway near a parking garage in the 5400 block of North Federal Highway about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, laying in blood, his car keys in his hand. He died at the scene.
According to the arrest report, five spent bullet casings were found on the ground. Additional live rounds were found nearby and in the trash can.
The report made public in court records Wednesday also show Brandon Labiner’s sister and her husband told authorities that he “also told them a few months ago that he purchased a firearm and Brandon made comments that it would be better if (redacted) was dead.”
The pair both spoke with Brandon Labiner after 5 p.m. Saturday “and he told them he had nothing to do with what happened to (victim) and stated that he doesn’t even own a gun.”
After that call, he texted his sister asking them to get together on Sunday so they could meet his cat.
Surveillance video showed a man riding up to Paul Labiner’s law office on a bicycle just after 3 p.m. Saturday. The man carried a drawstring backpack. The man takes a box out of the backpack, then a gun out of the box. He then puts the gun on the ground and “begins to pace around the parking garage.” Forty minutes later he picks up an item from the ground, and hides near the wall, according to the arrest report released by Boca Raton Police on Monday.
A man believed to be the victim appears and there’s a scuffle.
Police were summoned to the murder scene by 4:30 p.m.
According to a civil lawsuit filed by Paul Labiner against his son in September, in May 2022 Brandon Labiner had been scammed by a “client.” He accepted a foreign check from the client who told him it was a settlement check. “In order to get a quick and easy fee and without verifying whether or not the check had cleared,” Brandon Labiner wired $100,000 to the client, according to the lawsuit.
Brandon Labiner was “devastated” and “despondent” by the loss, according to the lawsuit, and at the end of that month, tried to make up the funds by funneling money out of his father’s accounts into his own.
His father alleged from June 7, 2022 for more than two months his son had stolen $445,198.53 from him, using Paul Labiner’s trust that he had set up for his wife “as his own personal checkbook.”
According to his personal Facebook page, Brandon Labiner posted in February that he and his wife lost their baby boy at 39 weeks. “It was an undetectable knot in his umbilical cord that could not have been prevented,” he wrote. “Painfully, mommy was still forced to go into labor and deliver our stillborn baby boy.”
Months later, in April, the baby’s footprint was inked onto his arm as a tribute from a loving father to his son.
“Footprint” is listed on Brandon Labiner’s arrest report under “tattoos.”
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at . Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash
