DELAND, Fla. — The boyfriend of a slain DeLand woman was arrested after he was found in Georgia Thursday, officials said.
Police said Jeffrey Crivelli, 31, confessed to the crime and was charged with second-degree murder.
Investigators said Brandy Johnston’s body was found in an apartment on East Wisconsin Street around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Photos: DeLand slaying scene
Police said Crivelli didn’t hurt Johnston’s 4-year-old son, who was inside the apartment at the time of the killing.
Bill Drew lives across the street from the apartment complex and said he's heard loud arguments coming from the apartment in the past.
"You hear it escalating a lot from that front building. Every night they fight, but this is kind of scary. I'm ready to go back home, go back north. I live right across the street," Drew said.
Johnston was set to attend Stetson University in DeLand in the fall. Her close friend, Kelly Lowe, said the victim’s 4-year-old son meant the world to her.
“Everything she did was for her son,” Lowe said.
Johnston was dating Crivelli, who detectives arrested in Georgia where they said he confessed to killing Johnston.
According to a police report, Crivelli called his mother and apologized that he "went into a rage" and killed Johnston, who he claimed tried to kill him.
Police said he took her car and used it to run away.
Lowe said the couple broke up, but lived together up until Johnston tried to throw Crivelli out of the house.
“He just snapped I guess and you know, they wouldn’t tell me anything yesterday,” Lowe said. “As far as violence, I didn’t think that it would escalate into something. You never do though.”
Crivelli has been arrested in the past for battery charges, but he was never prosecuted.
According to jail records, Crivelli was last booked into jail in February 2010 on a domestic battery by strangulation charge. But the charges were later dropped.
Detectives are still working to bring Crivelli back to Florida.