Second suspect arrested after Seffner woman murdered in 'cold blood': Deputies
PASCO COUNTY, Fla. - A second man is behind bars in connection with the murder of a Seffner woman who was found shot and killed in her car back in July.
Phillip Stapleton was arrested in Pasco County on charges of principal to murder in the first-degree and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He's the father of the victim, 22-year-old Ashley Voss', youngest son.
Booking photo for Phillip Stapleton. Courtesy: The Pasco County Sheriff's Office.
The man charged with pulling the trigger is 32-year-old Aurelio Diaz. He was arrested on first-degree premeditated murder charges about one mile away from the crime scene the day after she was killed on July 20.
According to an affidavit, Stapleton is friends with Diaz and picked him up at a Circle K gas station just after midnight that morning.
They then drove towards Ashley's grandmother's house in Seffner, where Stapleton dropped Diaz off on a nearby street.
According to investigators, around 1 a.m. a neighbor’s ring doorbell camera captured Diaz walking up to Voss’s car and shooting her through her car window as she sat in the driver’s seat outside of her grandmother's house.
Right up until the point of the shooting, deputies also say Ashley had exchanged texts with Stapleton, telling him where she was.
Ashley's family explained that the two had recently been arguing over child support, and Stapleton was threatening her.
READ: Woman murdered in ‘cold blood’ in front of Seffner home: HCSO
"She had very little conversation with him up until the child support issue came up," Ashley's grandmother, Rhonda Voss. "I heard several conversations. I heard them these were conversations on the phone, not text messages where he told her, 'You need to stop this. This better stop. If you know what's good for you, you better stop this.' I heard that with my own ears. And Ashley came to me and asked me, how can we stop this?"
Stapleton even came in and worked with detectives to find Diaz.
"I did it just like I told you, walked up to the back window, and boom," Diaz told Stapleton in a recorded phone call.
Later, Stapleton told detectives in another interview that they only went there with the intention of pranking her.
Right now, Ashley's grandmother is caring for Ashley's 22-month-old son and plans to continue doing so.
Her other grandma is caring for Ashley's 4-year-old son, they said the boys were her whole world.