By Alexandra Seltzer
Palm Beach Post
PALM BEACH, Fla. — On New Year’s Eve, at about 9:30 a.m., 20-year-old Stephen Woodman warned on his Facebook page that a lot of “rounds” would be going off and to stay indoors.
Later that afternoon, he wrote on the website about buying a “9mm.”
Just a few hours after the start of 2011, Woodman became the year’s first person arrested on a homicide charge in Palm Beach County, and 23-year-old Vito Caggiano died from a bullet to the head, sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.
Woodman, a felon, was out on bond on a charge of a felon in possession of a firearm when he admitted to detectives that he shot Caggiano at a New Year’s Eve party, according to a sheriff’s office probable-cause affidavit.
Barbera said Woodman first told detectives that he wasn’t at the party in the 2900 block of C Road in Loxahatchee. After later admitting he was there, he told detectives he thought Caggiano, of Loxahatchee, was going to fight his friend and fired his gun.
In the past four years, Woodman, of West Palm Beach, has been charged with aggravated battery, vehicle theft, firing a weapon from a vehicle, child abuse and using a false ID, Palm Beach County Jail records show. He was being held at the jail without bail.
James Fulton, host of the party, said most of the people at the party didn’t know Woodman and asked him to leave. He said an argument started between Woodman and Caggiano and ended with Caggiano dead at around 4 a.m.
Caggiano was released from prison in July, state records show.
He served two years for a series of crimes including motor vehicle theft and fraud, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Fulton, 25, said Caggiano, his best friend for more than 10 years, was just beginning to turn his life around.
“He had a heart of gold,” Fulton said. “He played with my 3-year-old son like he was his own.”
Caggiano’s grandfather Albert Rodriguez described his grandson as a handyman working in construction.
He was a happy, athletic person who was loved by everyone, he added.
“He was like a son to me,” Rodriguez said. “His life was finally starting to look ahead and this individual took him away. This whole thing was cold-blooded.”
Staff writers Scott Eyman, Jennifer Sorentrue and Sonja Isger and staff researcher Michelle Quigley contributed to this story.
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