Jury Trial For Hitman Accused Of Killing Veteran Slated To Begin

Daytona Beach, FL – The man hired to kill a Deltona veteran on Veterans Day is scheduled to appear for the first time in front of a jury today. Prosecutors say it was Benjamin Bascom who shot and killed Carlos Cruz-Echevarria back in 2017. Prosecutors say he shot Cruz-Echevarria four times on the side of the road near his house when stopped to help Bascom. During the investigation, detectives learned that a man named Kelsey McFoley hired Bascom to kill Cruz-Echevarria so he could not testify in a road rage case against him. In that incident, McFoley began to chase down Cruz-Echevarria after he went around McFoley’s vehicle. McFoley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for hiring a hitman to kill Cruz-Echevarria. Court records from the Volusia County Clerk of Courts shows Bascom’s trial was initially scheduled to begin on Monday (Oct. 11). The case was then continued to Tuesday, then continued again to Wednesday.