By Jane Musgrave
Facing a possible life sentence, Mark David Anderson accepted a plea deal Sept. 23 that will allow him to be freed in two years in connection with the 2023 shooting death of a popular Delray Beach computer tech at a beachside condominium.
Anderson didn’t admit guilt in connection with the gunshot slaying of 58-year-old Albert Camentz during an alcohol- and drug-fueled get-together at Berkshire by the Sea, 126 N. Ocean Boulevard in Delray Beach, about a block north of Atlantic Avenue.
Instead, the 48-year-old Lake Worth Beach man took what is called a “best interest” plea. That means he didn’t admit killing the man he barely knew, but acknowledged he could have been found guilty of second-degree murder at a trial that was set to begin days after he agreed to be punished.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Bradley Harper found Anderson guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter. He sentenced him to five years in prison.
Harper gave Anderson credit for the 1,107 days he had already spent in the county jail. That means Anderson, who worked as a self-employed carpenter, will be released from prison in two years.
The plea deal ends a bizarre case that was compromised when one of the two witnesses — Jack Feinberg — fatally shot himself last summer.
Feinberg, former longtime director of the Broward Addiction Recovery Center, initially offered Delray Beach police little information and then refused to talk to them without a lawyer. Anderson’s defense team used Feinberg’s reluctance to help police solve his friend’s murder to suggest that Feinberg, not Anderson, was the killer.
Defense attorneys Mike Dutko and Robert Gentile also focused on claims by Feinberg and his wife, Susan Schneider, who insisted they didn’t realize Camentz had been shot. Instead of getting Camentz medical help, they drove him nearly six miles from Berkshire by the Sea to their home west of Delray Beach.
Shawn Mahoney, who grew up with Camentz in Louisville, Kentucky, said he worried that the defense team could use Feinberg’s suicide and his strange behavior after the shooting to sow doubts with the jury.
“The surety of a guilty verdict wasn’t assured,” Mahoney said, explaining why he was satisfied with the outcome of the case. Prosecutors discussed it with Camentz’s family, which also signed off on it, he said.
While Anderson will spend only another two years behind bars, Mahoney said he was heartened that he will be on probation for four years. If Anderson violates that probation, he could be hauled back to court where he would face a possible 15 years in prison.
“The key for the family was that he didn’t walk away,” said Mahoney, who, like Camentz’s family, watched the proceedings on a Zoom link.
“This guy is a cold-blooded murderer,” said Mahoney, who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. “He killed someone he met 10 minutes earlier.”
The unfolding events
Camentz wasn’t supposed to be at the impromptu party. It was hastily arranged when Anderson ran into Feinberg and Schneider at a bar in Boca Raton and invited them to the timeshare he was renting.
As the couple was driving to Anderson’s timeshare, Camentz called Feinberg on the phone. Although Camentz didn’t know Anderson, he agreed to join them.
During the party that began after midnight, cocaine, marijuana, ketamine, nitrous oxide along with beer and other alcohol flowed freely, according to court documents.
Both Feinberg and Schneider told police that the four were getting along well. A small disagreement erupted over what Feinberg described as religious views. But, Feinberg said, Camentz wasn’t involved in the short-lived dispute.
As Camentz, Feinberg and Anderson talked, Schneider said she decided she wanted to take a dip in the hot tub, according to police. Schneider said she went to get a towel and Anderson disappeared into the bedroom.
When Anderson returned, Schneider said he was holding “a black object with both hands extended,” police reported. Anderson pointed at Camentz and a deafening explosion ripped through the apartment.
Feinberg fell off the couch, but got to his feet laughing. Camentz clutched his chest, saying he couldn’t breathe.
Schneider told police she didn’t see any blood or holes in Camentz's shirt and thought he might be having a heart attack. She said she wanted to take Camentz to Delray Medical Center, but he said he was feeling better and wanted to sleep at the couple’s house.
When they arrived at the house in the Floral Lakes community off West Atlantic Avenue, she said Camentz turned ghostly white and began complaining of chest pain. She called 911.
In a report, paramedics said they immediately determined that Camentz had been shot or stabbed. They took him to Delray Medical Center where he was pronounced dead of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police investigation
When police approached Feinberg at the hospital to ask him about the shooting, Feinberg said he was going to the hot tub when he heard a loud bang.
He said he didn’t know the name of the building where the shooting took place. His memory, he said, was muddled because he suffered from a “cognitive disorder,” the detective wrote.
He didn’t elaborate, but in his March 2023 resignation from the government-funded addiction treatment agency, Feinberg said that an unidentified illness he incurred during the pandemic had gotten worse.
After police told Feinberg that Camentz had died, he refused to answer any more questions without an attorney.
By the time police arrived at the couple’s house, Feinberg was already there. Detective John Caceres Duque said he heard Feinberg yelling at his wife, telling her not to answer any questions without an attorney. Schneider ignored her husband. She told Caceres where the shooting occurred and identified Anderson as the shooter.
With Schneider’s information, police went to Berkshire by the Sea on State Road A1A, found Anderson sleeping and arrested him. They found three blood spatters on an outside wall, later identified as belonging to Camentz.
A day after he refused to talk to Caceres, Feinberg changed his mind.
During a meeting with Caceres at the Ray Hotel in downtown Delray Beach, Feinberg confirmed what his wife had already told the detective. There hadn’t been any animosity between Camentz and Anderson. The four were having a good time.
The shooting was inexplicable, he said.
“I don’t know, why would he come out and done some sort of thing with some sort of weapon,” he told Caceres.
A licensed mental health counselor, Feinberg suggested Anderson may have been in a psychotic state. He suspected that Anderson had taken liquid LSD, along with other drugs, causing him to hallucinate.
Mahoney said the chain of events that cost his decades-long friend his life are beyond comprehension. “Everything about it is just so unbelievable,” he said.
He said he imagines sharing the story with Camentz. “‘No way,’ Al would say with his typical wry smile on his face,” Mahoney said. “‘There’s no way that could have happened. Are you sure?’”
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