The Brutal Murder of Bobby Kent

Bobby Kent was born in Hollywood, Florida*, on May 12th, 1973. He attended South Broward High School and shared a home with his parents, Iranian immigrants Fred and Farrah Kent. Bobby also has an older sister named Laila. Many adults saw him as a kind and charming young adult, while many of his peers called him a bully.

Bobby became friends with Martin "Marty" Puccio in the 3rd grade. They lived on the same street in Hollywood, Florida since 3rd grade. By the time they were teenagers they were best friends. Both Bobby and Marty’s parents didn’t like their friendship. Bobby’s dad thought, because Marty dropped out of high school, he had no future, and that this would rub off on Bobby. Marty’s parents thought Bobby bullied Marty, because he’d come home bloody or covered in bruises after hanging out with Bobby. There were rumors that both Bobby and Marty abused steroids, they were avid gym goers.

At one point Bobby and Marty convinced a 40 year old man to make gay porn. They had the man dance around naked and play with adult toys, while they recorded it. They hoped a local adult shop would buy the movie, but there was no interest in the movie.

Bobby and Marty’s friendship started to change gradually. Marty, who was 20 years old, started dating 18 year old Lisa Connelly, in the beginning of 1993. The beginning of the relationship was tough since Lisa was upset by how much time Marty was spending with Bobby. In an effort to change how much time Marty spent with Bobby, she set Bobby up with her best friend, 17-year-old Alice "Ali" Willis. Ali and Bobby dated for a few weeks before she broke up with him because of his abusive behavior towards her.

Sometime around June 1993, Marty confided in Lisa about the years of abuse and bullying he had endured from Bobby. Around the same time Lisa told Marty she was pregnant with his child and wanted a serious relationship with him. Lisa urged Marty to end his friendship with Bobby, but Marty was reluctant because of Bobby's attitude towards rejection and abandonment.

Lisa allegedly made the decision that Bobby had to go permanently. She started talking to Marty, and other friends about killing Bobby.

On July 13, 1993, Lisa called Ali to inform her that Bobby had threatened to kill Ali and her child from a prior relationship if she didn't return to Broward County and date him. Ali went to Lisa's house with her current boyfriend, 17 year old Donald Semenec, and her friend, 18 year old Heather Swallers to discuss killing Bobby, she believed the story Lisa told her, and was concerned for the safety of her, and her child.

They met up with Bobby that evening in a secluded spot, everything was going as they had planned. For some reason Marty, Donald and Heather got uncomfortable with the plan to kill Bobby and left. Lisa, still determined to kill Bobby that evening, with the help of Ali lured him to another secluded area. The girls promised Bobby he could drive Ali’s new Mustang 5.0 and that Ali wanted to have sleep with him. Lisa planned to shoot Bobby with her mother’s gun while he was having sex with Ali. For whatever reason she couldn’t shoot Bobby.

The failed attempt bothered Lisa so much that she got in touch with a hitman to take out Bobby that evening. The gang went to 20 year old Derek Kaufman’s house. Derek, a self proclaimed hitman listened to their plan, but as they wanted Bobby dead that evening, Derek told them he couldn’t get an untraceable gun that fast. The group went back to Lisa’s house to further discuss their plan to get rid of Bobby. Lisa’s 19 year old cousin Derek Dzvirko joined them at her residence and was filled in about the plan to kill Bobby.

On the evening of July 14th, they all met at Marty’s house to finalize their plan to kill Bobby. At this time the group consisted of Marty, Lisa, Ali, Donald, Heather, Derek D and Derek K. Marty called Bobby to meet up. Bobby agreed to meeting up, and the plan to kill him was on. Marty told Bobby it would be a fun night, they'd race their cars and Bobby could sleep with Ali again. The group took two knives, a lead pipe, and a baseball bat with them. They picked up Bobby from his home around 11:30 a.m. and went to a secluded area in Weston, Florida.

When they got to the secluded site, Ali took Bobby away from the group to talk. They were joined by Heather, Ali and Heather distracted Bobby so Donald could sneak up and stab Bobby. When Donald stabbed him, Bobby asked Marty for help but instead of helping him, Marty stabbed Bobby in the stomach. Bobby apologized for whatever he did, but Marty kept stabbing Bobby, most likely from the years of abuse he claimed. Being a bigger guy Bobby didn’t go down and was able to get away. Marty, Donald and Derek K followed Bobby and continued to hit and stab him. Marty slit Bobby’s throat and hit his head on the ground, this still didn’t kill Bobby. Derek K hit Bobby’s head with a baseball bat, finally killing him. Marty, Donald and both Dereks dumped Bobby’s body in shallow water, thinking alligators and other wildlife would take care of his body.

The group made up alibis, in case people started to ask questions about Bobby. Some of the group couldn't stop running their mouth and within a day started to talk about what happened. Lisa told her mom that the group had killed Bobby. Lisa’s mom contacted her sister, Derek D’s mom and together they contacted their brother Joe Scrima. Joe was friends with Broward County Sheriff’s Office detective Frank Illaraza and hoped that he could help. Derek D confessed what happened the night Bobby was killed to detective Frank, and led him to Bobby’s body. Ali also went to the police to report what happened to Bobby. Ali claims she's the one that got the investigation started.

Marty was charged with first-degree murder and sentenced to death on August 3rd, 1995. His sentence was commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years by the Supreme Court of Florida in 1997. Since it’s been 25 years it’s likely he’ll appear in front of the parole board soon.

Lisa was charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 1995. Her sentence was commuted to 22 years in 1998, she served 9 years and was released in 2004.

Ali was charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison and 40 years probation on May 19th, 1995. On appeal her sentence was reduced to 17 years, after serving a little over 6 years Ali was released from prison in September 2001.

Donald was charged with first-degree murder, but convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison plus 15 years. There’s a petition to free Donald that has been signed by over 800 people.

Derek K was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years and 30 years for conspiracy to commit murder.

Derek D pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 11 years. He was released from prison in October 1999, after only serving a few years.

Heather also pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 7 years. She was released from prison in February 1998, after only serving a few years.

Bobby’s parents felt justice was served with the sentences that were handed out to the defendants. Laila Kent, Bobby’s older sister has condemned the decision to let Lisa, Ali, Heather and cousin Derek out of prison. She stated “It disgusts me that they have freedom after killing someone. They’re horrible people and they should be ashamed of what they did. They don’t even deserve to be alive.”

Since her release from prison Ali has stated that she thought the group was going to teach Bobby a lesson and beat him up. She even went on national tv to tell her story to a friend on an episode of Dr.Drew. Police considered Ali one of the many conspirators together with Lisa.

Lisa lives in Pennsylvania with her and Marty’s daughter Megan and son from a new relationship. She has kept a low profile since her release and runs her own cleaning company.

Derek D lives in Missouri as a single father of one and reportedly works as a truck driver.

Heather lives in Georgia with children.

The weird thing in this case is that 4 of the conspirators seem to have a really vague or no relationship at all with the victim. Bobby was Marty’s best friend so they had a relationship, Lisa was Marty’s girlfriend establishing a relationship with Bobby that way, Ali briefly dated Bobby. Donald was Ali’s boyfriend at the time but that doesn’t establish a relationship with Bobby. Derek D is Lisa’s cousin again no real connection to Bobby. Heather was just along for the ride and didn’t know Bobby just a friend of a friend. Derek K, was a friend of a friend just like Heather no connection to Bobby whatsoever. Obviously, bullying shoudn’t be tolerated, but to kill an alleged bully is extreme.

It's up to you if you believe Ali's story that she didn't know they were going to kill Bobby, but she lured and distracted him and the 2 attempts to kill Bobby tells me that she and the whole group knew what was going to happen the night Bobby was killed.

In 2001 Lionsgate released the movie “Bully” Bobby’s murder was the inspiration for this movie.

*There’s information that states Bobby was born in Iran, but most reports state he was born in Hollywood, Florida