A Volusia County grand jury has indicted 27-year-old Austin Kersey on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Joseph Daniel Spruck, a DeLand man whose body was discovered inside his East Tall Pine Terrace home three months ago. Prosecutors allege Kersey broke into Spruck's residence and strangled him days before the body was found, adding a burglary with a battery charge on top of the murder count.
According to a release from the Office of State Attorney R.J. Larizza, the indictment handed down on August 6 alleges Kersey killed Spruck by strangulation on May 15, 2026. That timeline stands in contrast to the discovery of Spruck's body, which did not happen until three days later, on May 18, when DeLand police responding to 641 East Tall Pine Terrace found that a friend had already forced entry into the home out of concern for Spruck's welfare, according to a statement from the DeLand Police Department reported by CrimeWatch. Relatives had reportedly been unable to reach Spruck for several days before that welfare check, per the same account. As reported by WFTV, investigators reported finding defensive wounds on Spruck's arms and hands, and the medical examiner determined he died from blunt-force trauma to the head.
Stolen SUV Leads Police to a Motel Room
Spruck's gray Kia SUV was missing from his home, and officers located it that same evening at the Orange Tree Inn, according to WFTV. Patrol units set up surveillance on the vehicle, and Kersey was arrested as he exited a motel room and approached it, the DeLand Police Department reported, per CrimeWatch.
Searches connected to the arrest turned up 28.2 grams of crack cocaine along with cannabis, according to CrimeWatch's account of the police report, resulting in a felony cocaine trafficking charge against Kersey in addition to the drug charges WFTV reported he initially faced. Those narcotics charges, along with felony probation violation warrants tied to prior convictions for theft and fleeing and eluding law enforcement, allowed authorities to hold Kersey without bond while homicide detectives built the murder case, per the same reporting. Police ultimately served the murder warrant while Kersey was already being held at the Volusia County Correctional Facility, WFTV reported.
A Recent Drug Arrest in the Same City
Kersey's brush with local narcotics enforcement did not begin with this case. In February, he was among nine people arrested during a Volusia Sheriff's Office raid on a suspected drug house on Grant Avenue in DeLand, where he was charged with possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia, according to WNDB News Daytona Beach. That multi-agency raid reportedly yielded a range of narcotics including cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine.
The Volusia County grand jury voted unanimously to indict Kersey on the first-degree murder charge, per WFTV. The same August 6 grand jury session also returned indictments against two other defendants, Trent Prather and Cameron Sheffield, on unrelated and severe child sexual abuse charges, according to the state attorney's office.
What Kersey Now Faces in Court
Under Florida Statute Section 782.04(1)(a), first-degree murder is classified as a capital felony, punishable by either life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, according to The Law Offices of Robert David Malove. Because first-degree murder is a capital offense, it cannot be charged by a state attorney's information alone and legally requires a grand jury indictment, which under Florida criminal procedure results in detention without bond unless a defendant is granted what's known as an Arthur hearing, according to The Baez Law Firm. Kersey remains jailed without bond while awaiting trial, per WFTV. It remains unresolved whether Kersey and Spruck had any prior relationship, what specifically motivated the alleged break-in and killing, or whether the State Attorney's Office intends to pursue the death penalty rather than life without parole.
The case adds to what has been an unusually heavy stretch of violent crime investigations in West Volusia County this month, including a fatal stabbing that shut down a road near State Road 15A and a shooting of a contracted garbage truck driver in DeLand's Trinity Gardens neighborhood, both of which local first responders were managing within the same span of days.
