Slain Lantana woman got domestic-violence injunction against sister’s boyfriend

Rebeca Davila sought an domestic-violence injunction in September against the boyfriend of her 19-year-old sister Sofia.

The 20-year-old wrote, "I fear for my safety because Anthony has stated he will kill anyone who files a restraining order."

On Wednesday morning, authorities said, someone fatally shot the sisters at their mother's Lantana-area home.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office will not confirm "Anthony" is the person who fatally shot himself Wednesday near St. Augustine. Authorities there had chased the man's car on Interstate 95 after spotting it and its license plate, which PBSO had included in an alert about the slayings.

As of Wednesday, "Anthony" was under the restraining order sought in September, and also was on probation following the 2018 beating of a different girlfriend. He went to jail in December for violating that probation. He got out July 3.

PBSO has not named the sisters. Their family has invoked its rights under a Florida constitutional amendment approved in November 2018 and modeled after the national Marsy's Law victims' rights movement.

But The Post independently identified the sisters, and they were listed Thursday morning in the online deaths database of the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner.

On Wednesday, the girls' 48-year-old mother told The Post she could not yet speak about her loss. Other family members also said they were too distraught to talk.

According to their Facebook pages, Sofia Davila worked at a Delray Beach restaurant and had started taking classes at Palm Beach State College in December. Rebeca was a technician at JFK Medical Center North in West Palm Beach.

The mother had bought the home on the 7900 block of Overlook Road in June, county property records show. Her Facebook page said she grew up in North Miami and had attended Palm Beach State. It said the family originally is from Guatemala. A family friend said the woman had a third daughter, but did not elaborate.

At least one neighbor called dispatchers at about 9 a.m. Wednesday to report shouting, followed by "horrified" screaming, and then gunshots, at the home on Overlook Road, just north of Minor Road. A neighbor went to the home and found the women dead inside.

PBSO so far has provided no other details on the slayings.

It was Rebeca who on Sept. 17 had asked for the injunction against "Anthony" on behalf of Sofia, who she said was too afraid to do it.

Circuit Judge Jessica Ticktin had issued it Oct. 2, effective "until further order of the court," court records show.

Rebeca had written that in May 2019, the man had followed Sofia and a friend in his car, and as they pulled up to their home -- at the time, the Davilas lived in Delray Beach -- the man stepped out with a hammer and "asked if they thought he was 'playing with them.' "

Rebeca said the man pushed her and broke the friend's car tail light with the hammer.

Two weeks later, Rebeca wrote, the man walked into the Davila home uninvited, looking for Sofia. Another time, she said, he showed up at a public event and grabbed Sofia, then pushed Rebeca to the floor. She said he tried to punch her but missed.

On Nov. 22, six weeks after the injunction was issued, "Anthony" was charged with battery after Sofia told deputies he had grabbed her arm and thrown a water bottle. The report identified her as still dating the man off and on.

Prosecutors dropped those charges. But the incident violated the conditions of a three-year probation issued in January 2019 in a plea deal related to an alleged August 2018 attack by "Anthony" on his former girlfriend -- a different woman -- at a Boynton Beach restaurant, hours after that woman had filed for court protection. That sent him to jail from December to July.

The St. John'sSheriff's Office confirmed Thursday morning to The Post that PBSO sent out an alert listing a car and license plate that they told St. Johns was believed connected to the sisters' murders.

Just before 6:30 p.m., deputies spotted the car on Interstate 95, southwest of St. Augustine, and gave chase, then laid down "stop sticks" to deflate its tires, the agency said.

It said the driver went around the sticks "in an aggressive manner," then lost control and struck a guard rail. Deputies ran up to the car to find the driver had shot himself. The agency did not elaborate.

The driver died at Orange Park Medical Center, north of St. Augustine.

ek@pbpost.com

@eliotkpbp

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