- May 6, 2024
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Two Palm Coast men were arrested Thursday on charges of the first-degree murder and kidnapping of another Flagler County man, whose remains were found last month in a burning car on a logging road in St. Johns County.
Justin Adam Boyles, 24, and Charles “Danny” Massey, 38, tortured and killed Edwards “Scott” Mullener, 54, because of an apparent love triangle, investigators say. The two had been arrested June 21 on charges related to an investigation into Mullener’s death, and were charged this week with first-degree murder and kidnapping.
Mullener’s charred remains were found in the trunk of his Cadillac Fleetwood on June 14, which was badly burned and parked on a logging road in St. Johns County.
According to an arrest warrant, Boyles and Mullener were both romantically involved with Antoinette Heart. On June 13, Mullener and Heart argued at her home in the Hammock. She told investigators that she wanted him to leave, so she went into her house and called Boyles as Mullener pounded on her door, asking her to talk to her.
Heart said she wasn’t initially aware that Boyles had arrived at her house, but that she looked outside when the pounding stopped and saw Mullener lying on the ground, semi-conscious, with blood covering his face. Boyles was standing over him.
Boyles then left and returned several minutes later with his friend and roommate, Massey, and Cheryl Legget.
Massey broke a beer bottle on the ground and said he was “going to end this,” Heart said. Boyles burned a cigarette into Mullener’s neck, causing him to cry out.
Heart said at this point she tried to intervene, asking the two men to stop, but that they became angry that she was defending Mullener and told her to go back inside her home, saying she would be next if she spoke of the incident to anyone.
At one point, Boyles made Heart and Legget to go get beer, Legget told investigators. The two went to a gas station and bout a 12-pack of Bud Light and two other drinks. After they returned, the men sent them inside. Legget said she saw Boyles pour beer into Mullener’s mouth as Mullener tried to apologize.
About two hours later, Heart watched the three men leave in Mullener’s Cadillac. The last thing she saw, she said, was Boyles ushering Mullener to the front of her residence. He had a bloody towel over his head. She did not see him sitting upright inside his vehicle, she said.
The next morning, St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a burning fire found on a logging road in the Flagler Estates area. When they opened the Cadillac’s trunk, they found human-looking bones and called homicide detectives.
That evening, Massey, Boyles and Legget went to a friend’s house to “lay low” because Boyles and Massey had gotten into a fight with Mullener. They were “extremely intoxicated,” the warrant says.
“Let me enjoy my last meal,” Boyles said during the evening. “Twenty-five to life.”
At the time, everyone laughed, thinking nothing of the comment.
Heart told investigators that the next day, she burned some bloodied items in a fire pit. During a search of Heart’s residents, investigators found a large amount of blood in the yard near the home’s side entrance, as well as bloodied items, which were taken into evidence.
Investigators are still searching for other people who may have been connected to the homicide. Both Massey and Boyles are being held in jail on no bond.
