Orlando-Area Carjacking Suspect Confesses To Murder Of Ex's Friend, Leads Police To Body

Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department responded to an armed carjacking on Sunday, according to their statement to Oxygen.com. Authorities said the suspect, identified as 33-year-old transient Alexander Acs, slashed the victim with a box cutter before stealing his car. The carjacking victim is being treated in the hospital and is expected to survive.

Acs was located the following day and taken into the sheriff’s office, where robbery detectives questioned him about the carjacking, according to the statement. During the interview, Acs confessed to a brutal murder the week prior.

Though authorities withheld the name of the murder victim, Fox 25 Orlando and ABC's WFTV 9 identified him as 32-year-old Tyrone Lawson.

“During the interview with robbery detectives, Alexander confessed to the carjacking and indicated he had also killed someone prior to the carjacking incident,” as stated in the arrest affidavit emailed to Oxygen.com. “Alexander then rode with and provided detectives with directions from the sheriff’s office… where the body of the victim was located.”

Investigators found the victim at an Orlando apartment, noting the smell of decomposition indicated the victim was beyond help.

Acs told authorities he came to Orlando on Jan. 7 to find his ex-girlfriend. She'd pressed charges against Acs, leading to a warrant for his arrest, according to the affidavit. Acs admitted to following a male acquaintance of the ex-girlfriend in hopes that the man would lead Acs to the ex’s whereabouts.

According to the affidavit, the suspect told authorities he planned to “take everything from her” before fleeing the country.

During the surveillance of the unnamed acquaintance, an Uber driver introduced Acs to Lawson as “someone who would be able to help Alexander out while in Orlando,” the affidavit continued.

Acs claimed he purchased narcotics from Lawson and that Lawson was “disrespectful” towards Acs, despite making money off the suspect through multiple alleged drug transactions.

Acs retrieved a large piece of asphalt and kept it on the victim’s back porch until Jan 11., when Acs said he had tied Lawson up, muffled his screams with a sock, and beat him to death with the asphalt.

Acs further claimed he’d lowered the temperature of the apartment and “doused the house in lighter fluid” in hopes of concealing the smell of decomposition, according to the affidavit. The suspect also stated that he'd crushed the victim’s cell phone and tried to flush it down the toilet. All of this lead investigators to call Lawson's death a “premeditated killing.”

Orange County detectives say the carjacking that followed was part of Acs’ plot to locate his ex-girlfriend.

“Following the murder… Alexander wandered to Orlando, sleeping in the woods, while still surveilling the male friend, whom he believed would lead Alexander to his ex-girlfriend,” according to the affidavit. “On Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022, Alexander attempted to contact the male friend, which ultimately resulted in the carjacking situation that led to Alexander’s arrest.”

Acs was booked into the Orange County jail on charges of first-degree murder, according to jail records. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told Oxygen.com that detectives expect to add attempted murder and carjacking/robbery to Acs’ charges.

Authorities stated in the affidavit that Acs intends to plead guilty and that he declared he’d “kill a corrections officer” if it helped secure the death penalty.