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West End homicide victim sold marijuana, showed cash on social media, friend says


The roommate of Bryan K. Garcia, 35, who died Monday, said he and others warned Garcia not to show off his money. 'If you have $20,000, why are you showing people?'

SCARBOROUGH — Bryan K. Garcia, 35, the Scarborough man who died Monday in Portland’s West End, sold marijuana for a living and was known to flash large amounts of cash, his roommate said.

Tommy D. Adorno Jr., 24, said he had lived with Garcia for about two years at Adorno’s house on Holmes Road. In that time, Garcia bought and sold marijuana, first as a side business and later as his main source of income after an injury forced him to leave his job at a remodeling company.

Garcia would buy a pound or more of the drug and resell it in smaller units, Adorno said. He dealt only in cash, so Garcia often had $10,000 or $20,000 – and wasn’t shy about showing it off.

In social media posts to his friends, Garcia, who went by Cage, would post photos of himself with the drug proceeds, Adorno said.

“I wasn’t the only one who told him you can’t be doing that,” said Adorno, 24. “If you have $20,000, why are you showing people? People know where you are. Like, you take pictures of (your) house with the money, in the car with the money.”

Adorno said a police detective informed him of Garcia’s death Monday night, but did not reveal how Garcia was killed.

Police and rescue workers were called to Chadwick Street on Monday afternoon for a report of a man slumped over in his car. Garcia was pronounced dead at the scene and police are calling the crime a homicide.

No arrests have been made, police said Wednesday, and they would not say whether any suspects have been identified.

But Adorno said the detective told him that in and around the car, police found two or three five-gallon buckets, at least one of which had blood on it. Adorno said Garcia used the buckets to store gallon-sized freezer bags of marijuana.

Assistant Police Chief Vern Malloch declined to discuss specifics of the case, but said that cell phone activity and social media are avenues of interest for detectives.

Garcia had run-ins with police before. His criminal history included a 2006 conviction on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor. That conviction forced him to register as a sex offender, a requirement he repeatedly flouted, according to court records.

He was last arrested in 2015 for failing to register as a sex offender in Scarborough, according to court records. During that investigation, police raided Adorno’s home and seized from Garcia nearly $20,000 in cash, two firearms, one of which had been stolen, a tactical vest and a badge from a nearby fire department.

Police did not find any drugs, Adorno said, and they eventually returned the cash they seized.

Garcia pleaded guilty to failing to register and was sentenced to nine months in jail, court records show.

Adorno said he last saw Garcia on Monday, the day he died, at about 10 a.m. A repairman had come to Garcia’s home to fix two broken windows in his Infiniti G35 coupe. Adorno said Garcia’s car had been broken into outside the Portland Planet Fitness on Marginal Way about a week earlier.

Then a marijuana customer came to Adorno’s home, and Garcia and the customer left around the same time, in separate vehicles. Adorno said he did not know where Garcia was headed, but that he typically went to the gym at least once a day.

Adorno said Garcia was an avid weightlifter and runner, and kept himself and the house they shared clean and tidy. Garcia was also known for being friendly and upbeat, Adorno said.

Kristi McCarthy, 29, of Portland, who dated Garcia on and off for years, said Garcia had a smile that lit up a room, and made friends wherever he went. Garcia’s mother was in the Navy, so Garcia moved around a lot as a kid, and spent time in Spain before he came to Maine, McCarthy said.

Garcia graduated from Brunswick High School, but McCarthy did not meet him until a few years later, when she was about 22.

“The big one that he talked about a lot was Spain,” McCarthy said. “He had a lot of memories of living in Spain.”

McCarthy said Garcia was multi-talented and outgoing and she still has a portrait he drew of her. She recalled that he was an exceptional dancer who also loved to make music.

“It just really hurts to see all the stuff that’s being said, because he’s really such a loving guy,” McCarthy said. “Everybody who met him loved him. He knew so many people. My cell phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the news first came out. He had a positive impact on a lot of people. A lot of people looked up to him.”

Even after they had stopped dating, Garcia and McCarthy remained close, she said.

McCarthy said she last saw Garcia the day he died. She had plans to spend an extended period in California for job training, and on Monday, she got emotional as they hugged each other goodbye.

“He kept holding me tight and kept saying this won’t be goodbye, it will never be goodbye,” she said. “But I guess it really was goodbye. At least I got a nice big hug.”

McCarthy declined to discuss anything related to Garcia’s alleged drug activity and said she would leave it up to police to determine why her friend was killed.

She said he dreamed of getting into real estate, and wanted to buy and flip houses.

“He always used to tell me I was his angel,” she said. “Now he’s mine, I guess.”

Matt Byrne can be contacted at 791-6303 ..Source..

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