Authorities: Man dead after online date led to robbery

Published August 23, 2016

From left: Hailey Bustos, Andre Warner, Gary Gray, Joshua Ellington. (Auburndale Police Department)

A man who took a woman bowling after meeting through an online dating site was fatally shot the next night when she returned with three other men and a gun, police said Tuesday.

Adam Hilarie, 27, was shot in the head during a robbery that police say Hailey Bustos, 18, arranged within hours after visiting his home on their first date in the central Florida town of Auburndale.

Police said Hilarie and Bustos met through the PlentyOfFish website. They went to his place after bowling Thursday night, and then he drove her home. Investigators believe she and three other assailants then met to discuss the robbery.

She returned Friday night with Andre Warner, 26; Gary Gray, 31; and Joshua Ellington, 31, police said Tuesday after all four were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, armed robbery and first-degree murder.

The group knocked on his door until he opened, then forced their way in at gunpoint, police said. Bustos told police that Hilarie was forced to the kitchen floor and was "begging for his life, was not putting up any kind of fight and was telling them he had a five-year-old daughter," the arrest affidavit says.

Hillarie was shot in the head with a .38-caliber gun, and then the four took an Xbox console, video games, three flat screen televisions, an iPhone, a wallet and other items, according to police documents.

"There was a struggle in there and then one of the guys shot him," Auburndale Deputy Chief Andy Ray said. "Then they opened another door and started stealing his personal possessions and putting them in their car and then left."

Ray said police believe Bustos agreed to the date with the intention of setting up the robbery. Three of the four, including Bustos, also have been charged with violation of probation.

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