A lawyer in Florida who was disbarred after being accused of stealing $450,000 from his family’s trust fund has been charged with murdering a man reported to be his father, who was also a lawyer.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was charged after a bullet-ridden body was found in a pool of blood outside the law office of his father Paul Labiner, 68, on Saturday.
Police said in a statement that ‘Marsy’s law’ had been invoked by the victim’s family to avoid naming them but local outlets, including The Sun Sentinel, suggested the body was that of Brandon’s father.
A redacted police report seen by the outlet indicated the victim was found at the address of his father’s law office and an attorney for Brandon said he was ‘grieving his father’s death’.
According to the Florida Bar, Brandon had his law license suspended in April after his father sued him for stealing around half a million dollars from a trust fund in which his mother was listed as the sole beneficiary.
Brandon Labiner, 34, was charged after a bullet-ridden body was found in a pool of blood outside the law office of his father Paul Labiner, 68. The pair are pictured together here
Brandon Labiner, 34, appears before a judge after his arrest on a first-degree murder charge
The pair had worked together in the same law office until Brandon was forced to resign last September.
According to police, the victim’s body was found on the 5400 block of North Federal Highway in Boca Raton around 4.30pm Saturday by a family member.
The victim was found with car keys in his hand and had been shot in the head, upper chest, and twice in his lower body, police said.
Brandon had been a personal injury attorney before his law license was suspended and after leaving his father’s practice operated out of his own office around three miles to the north, also in Boca Raton.
According to the police incident report, license plate readers identified a vehicle belonging to Brandon driving in the area of the crime after 2pm on Saturday.
Surveillance video also showed that soon after a man rode up to Paul Labiner’s law office on a bicycle just after 3pm.
That man carried a drawstring backpack and took a box out of the backpack, then a gun out of the box.
He then put the gun on the ground and ‘begins to pace around the parking garage.’
Forty minutes later he picked up an item from the ground and hid near the wall, according to the arrest report released by Boca Raton Police on Monday and seen by The Sentinel.
Pictured is the law office of Paul Labiner, outside the body of which a victim was found on Saturday afternoon
According to the Florida Bar, Brandon had his law license suspended in April after his father (right) sued him for stealing around half a million dollars from a trust fund in which his mother (left) was listed as the sole beneficiary
Paul Labiner (left) is pictured with his son Brandon (right)
A second man, believed to be Paul is then seen scuffling with the suspect scuffle. After the two went out of view the man with the gun then ran away.
Using the surveillance video Boca Raton Police identified the suspect and found him at his own law office in the 900 block of North Federal Highway, where he barricaded himself in the building.
On Saturday night his lawyer had been able to encourage him out of the building, police said.
Inside the office, an officer ‘observed a bicycle, in an open closet door, matching the description of the bicycle seen on the parking garage video surveillance’.
While officers were inside the building they also went into the public restroom and found in the trash on the second floor, by Brandon’s office, a gun cleaning kit and a piece of paper with the attorney his attorney Rodriguez’s name.
A search warrant was executed on his car and police found a black drawstring backpack, a 9mm magazine, multiple boxes of ammo, a box for a gun, a gas can, a lighter, gloves and a face mask, according to the report.
A trash can was also burned in what ‘may have been used to attempt to destroy evidence,’ according to the police report.
In the car they also found a poncho they said the suspect wore to the crime scene, which was seen on surveillance video by a nearby motel.
Paul’s law firm specializes in estate and trust planning and he was admitted to the Bar in 1992. He is pictured
Brandon Labiner’s criminal defense attorney, Valentin Rodriguez, told The Sun Sentinel that his client is ‘disputing’ the charges.
Paul’s law firm specializes in estate and trust planning and he was admitted to the Bar in 1992.
He sued Brandon over the trust fund dispute and in a lawsuit the pair were said to have had a ‘fairly good father-son relationship’ Brandon began exhibiting ‘bizarre behavior’ in February 2022.
Paul said in the lawsuit that his son assaulted him in May 2022 injuring his shoulder.
Before the pair fell out Brandon had managed his own division within his father’s law office called the Personal Accident and Injury Law Center.
According to the Sentinel, at the time they once hired around 20 staff.
‘But Brandon’s poor work ethic and subpar performance as a plaintiff’s attorney caused the volume of cases to drastically dwindle’ to ‘no more than a handful of viable cases,’ according to the lawsuit, seen by the outlet.
