Orange County

Ezekiel Hopkins: What we know about the man accused of beating 2 to death with baseball bat in Windermere

WINDERMERE, Fla. — The investigation is still ongoing in Windermere after two men were beaten to death with a baseball bat and a woman was severely injured.

Windermere police said the 34-year-old Orlando man accused of murder and aggravated battery in the case, Ezekiel Hopkins, is now in custody.

READ: Man accused of fatally beating 2, injuring woman with baseball bat during Windermere home burglary

Here’s what we know about Hopkins so far:

  • Hopkins is charged with two counts of murder and aggravated battery related to the deaths of John Savey and his son James Savey, 30, and the injuries to John’s wife, Lisa Savey.
  • Officials said prior to responding to the Saveys’ home, members of the Ocoee Police Department observed a suspicious vehicle on Ocoee Apopka Rd behind a construction area. The vehicle fled, which investigators believe may have been at a high rate of speed down McGuire Road and was not pursued pursuant to policy, according to police. The vehicle then drove over a berm off Park Avenue before crashing into a tree next to the home where the double homicide occurred, according to police.
  • Police said Hopkins was located unconscious inside the Saveys’ home and was transported to Health Central as he appeared to have drunk bleach while at the scene.
  • Records show Hopkins has a criminal history involving domestic violence. He pleaded no contest to violating a domestic violence injunction in a 2009 case and entered an abuse intervention program.
  • In 2008, a woman Hopkins has children with claimed he threatened her life and her daughter heard him say he was planned to “shot that (expletive) in the head.”
  • In a 2009 petition she said that he punched her in the head three times and she said that Hopkins said “he was going to run the car into a house killing us.”
  • Three years later she claimed he said: “He will kill me because I refuse to talk to him.”
Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson, WFTV.com

Sarah Wilson joined WFTV Channel 9 in 2018 as a digital producer after working as an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly a decade in various communities across Central Florida.