Jackson man accused of killing Florida firefighter indicted

BELFAST, Maine — A local man accused of killing a Florida firefighter in February and dumping his body in the woods of Newburgh was indicted this week by the Waldo County Grand Jury.

Daniel Porter, 24, of Jackson, was charged with one count of intentional or knowing murder for the slaying of Jerry Perdomo.

Police have said that Porter shot Perdomo in the side of the head on Feb. 16 at a rented home in Jackson with a semi-automatic rifle and that it was a drug-related crime. Perdomo, a firefighter and emergency medical technician for the Seminole County Fire Department, allegedly had been coming to Bangor once a month for nearly a year in order to illicitly transport and sell prescription drugs from Florida.

He had told his girlfriend, Lisa Gould of Bangor, that on the day he was killed, he packed a gun and two cellphones and told her he had to go collect a debt, according to Maine State Police Det. Brian Strout, who testified at Porter’s bail hearing in March at Waldo County Superior Court.

Porter’s girlfriend, Cheyanne Nowak, met Perdomo at a Route 69 gas station and led him to the rural Jackson home where Porter was staying.
She then left the house to pick up her toddler while the two men were inside playing pool together, Strout said.

Porter later told police that he had owed Perdomo $3,000, and that Perdomo had threatened him and his family. One of the alleged threats was made public during Porter’s bail hearing.

Porter said Perdomo told him he would erase $500 from the debt if Perdomo could rape Nowak on the pool table.

After Perdomo was shot, his body was wrapped in blue tarps and then moved several miles to the woods near Porter’s grandmother’s home on Dahlia Farm Road in Newburgh, according to Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea.

Nearly two weeks later, after a widespread search effort that included local police, wardens and firefighters from Florida, police found the body on a red sled off a woods path.

Police had arrested Porter and charged him with homicide the day before finding Perdomo’s body, after discovering skull fragments and blood drops in the rented Jackson home.

Porter was denied bail during a March hearing at Waldo County Superior Court. At the hearing, Perdomo’s widow, Tonya Perdomo of Orange City, Fla., cried as the state’s attorney and a detective gave details of her husband’s death.

The courthouse was crowded with 75 or so of Porter’s family members and friends, who donned yellow T-shirts after the hearing was over that read, “We Support The Right To Protect Our Families.”