Inset: Eduardo Labrada Machado (Volusia County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Circle K where Machado allegedly gunned down an off-duty police officer (WKMG).
A Florida convenience store clerk will spend the rest of his life behind bars for executing an off-duty police officer by shooting him 20 times — later telling investigators he did it because he was having a “bad day.”
Eduardo Labrada Machado on Monday pleaded no contest to one count of first-degree murder with a firearm in the slaying of 45-year-old Edgewater Police Officer David Jewell. Following the plea, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn immediately sentenced Labrada Machado to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to a news release from the 7th Judicial Circuit Office of the State Attorney.
The sentencing ends a case that deeply rattled the local community for its cold-blooded violence.
On Sept. 15, 2025, Jewell, who was off-duty and dressed in civilian clothes, walked into the Circle K gas station in Ormond-by-the-Sea to buy a hot dog with his father-in-law. Labrada Machado was working his shift as a clerk when the officer entered.
As Law&Crime previously reported, surveillance footage from the store captured a calculated sequence of events. As Jewell waited at the front counter to pay, Labrada Machado walked out of the front doors, retrieved a jacket from the passenger side of his vehicle, and immediately walked back inside. Concealing a recently purchased handgun in the jacket, Labrada Machado approached Jewell from behind and opened fire at close range.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood previously spoke out about the sheer horror captured on the shop’s cameras. “The video is probably something that in 38 years of law enforcement, that I can tell you — it’s unbelievable what you see in that video,” Chitwood said.
According to authorities, Labrada Machado’s handgun jammed after Jewell was struck with the first shot and hit the floor. Undeterred, the clerk “stands over the top of him, clears the gun, and then probably fires another seven or eight shots” directly into Jewell’s head, Chitwood noted.
State prosecutors revealed Monday that Labrada Machado shot Jewell a total of 20 times. The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office arrested Labrada Machado shortly after he fled the gas station.
Following his arrest, Labrada Machado confessed to the murder but offered a strikingly casual motive. He told detectives that he was having a “rough start” to his morning and a “bad day” on his drive to work, and admitted he had actively planned to shoot Jewell before even arriving at the store.
“The defendant said he was having a bad day on his drive to work, and thought about shooting Jewell earlier,” the sheriff’s office said following Labrada Machado’s arrest. “When he arrived at work and saw Jewell, he used a handgun he recently purchased to shoot him multiple times at close range. He did not say anything to Jewell prior to shooting him.”
The defendant said he and Jewell, who lived nearby and was a regular customer at the establishment, had argued “at some point in the past.” However, Labrada Machado could never provide investigators with any details regarding what that past argument entailed, and he noted he was unaware that Jewell was a law enforcement officer, though he claimed he had previously seen the victim carrying a firearm and was “afraid of him.”
By entering the no-contest plea, Labrada Machado avoided a capital trial in which he could have faced the death penalty. State Attorney R.J. Larizza released a statement on Monday afternoon expressing hope that the finality of the life sentence would provide some closure to the slain officer’s loved ones.
“The stark brutality of this case shocked our entire community,” he said. “The defendant’s plea ensures he will never be released from prison. I hope that avoiding a long and painful trial process will give the family some measure of peace. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.”
