Tonight, at about 8:20 p.m., a jury in Lee County returned a conviction against Thomas Roy Stein for First-Degree Felony Murder and three counts of Attempted Robbery with a Firearm. Stein was convicted for his role in the robbery that ended with the murder of a 15-year-old girl in Cape Coral on March 17, 2024. The jury returned the guilty verdict following a four-day trial in Lee County.
Assistant State Attorney Sara Miller of the State Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit and Assistant State Attorney Alyssa Wolf prosecuted the case. The Cape Coral Police Department investigated the case.
On the night of the murder, the defendant, armed with a gun, took an SUV his mother had rented, and used it to pick up a friend to go out and commit crime. They first drove through the parking lot of a North Fort Myers movie theater attempting to burglarize cars. They then drove to a Cape Coral movie theater but after driving through the parking lot, considered robbing someone at a nearby bank ATM. It was then that they saw the trio of girls walking and decided to rob them.
The victim and her friends were walking to get food after watching a movie at the theater. They were walking along a road adjacent to Del Prado, it was night and the road was not well lit, when an SUV drove by and then circled back and drove by again. The driver, the defendant, then flashed the high beams into the girls’ faces and stopped the vehicle in front of them.
Moments later a gun went off, with the bullet going into the chest of the victim, at close range. The defendant fled the scene along with his co-defendant as the victim’s friends, also victims of the attempted robbery, tried to save her life, applying pressure to the wound and calling 911. A Cape Coral Police Officer arrived on scene in minutes and also tried to save the victim’s life. The victim was able to speak at first and told the officer she did not know the person who shot her. She died a short time later at a local hospital.
Earlier this year, the State Attorney’s Office direct filed the case against Stein and co-defendant Christopher Horne Jr., which took the cases from juvenile court and into adult court. This allowed for adult sanctions in the case. State Attorney Amira Fox then convened the Lee County Grand Jury and they returned indictments against then 16-year-old Thomas Stein and 16-year-old Christopher Horne, Jr., both for First Degree Felony Murder.
Horne pled and as part of his plea agreement, had to testify truthfully against his co-defendant if called as a witness.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 10, 2026, for Stein.
Samantha Syoen – Communications Director, State Attorney’s Office