The shooting happened at Berkshire by the Sea, on North Ocean Boulevard in Delray. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Judge denies bond to suspect; defense aims to impugn witnesses
By Jane Musgrave
Nearly eight months after a popular computer tech was shot at a Delray Beach oceanside resort, it’s still a mystery why what was described as a friendly — if drug- and alcohol-soaked — gathering turned deadly.
Albert Camentz didn’t know his accused killer, Mark David Anderson. He had no beef with the 45-year-old self-employed Lake Worth Beach carpenter who allegedly shot him during the impromptu get-together at Berkshire by the Sea, the only two witnesses told Delray Beach police.
Not only is there no known motive for the September shooting, but the witnesses insisted they didn’t even know their 58-year-old friend was wounded even though he was having trouble breathing.
Jack Feinberg and Susan Schneider, who invited Camentz to join them at the timeshare Anderson was using, didn’t immediately call 911 or take Camentz to the hospital.
Instead the couple drove Camentz, who lived in Delray Beach, to their home six miles away in suburban Delray before calling for medical help.
Still, when Schneider was interviewed by police, she was unequivocal. “Mark shot Al,” she said, according to police reports.
Prosecutors insist that Schneider’s statement along with the other evidence police gathered makes the second-degree murder case against Anderson ironclad.
“This is not a circumstantial case,” Assistant State Attorney Jo Wilensky said at a court hearing earlier this year. “There is another human being who watched this happen.”
However, at a February court hearing, Anderson’s defense attorneys said the human beings who witnessed the shooting aren’t trustworthy. Schneider and Feinberg, a married couple, changed their stories. Feinberg initially refused to talk to police.
Both are hiding key information about Camentz’s death, defense attorney Michael Dutko told Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Cymonie Rowe at the hearing.
As a former longtime director of the Broward Addiction Recovery Center, the 61-year-old Feinberg may have been trying to shield his reputation from the fallout of a killing that occurred at a party that featured cocaine, marijuana, nitrous oxide and ketamine, Dutko said. Or he could have other motives.
Court records along with heavily redacted documents The Coastal Star obtained from the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office capture the confusion that surrounded Camentz’s slaying at the complex on North Ocean Boulevard.
The three men were talking amiably, drinking and doing drugs when Schneider, 58, said she decided she wanted to take a dip in the hot tub. She asked Anderson to get some towels from the bedroom. He emerged with what Schneider described as a “black object.”
An ear-splitting boom filled the apartment and Camentz and Feinberg fell to the floor. Feinberg stood up laughing. Camentz complained he couldn’t breathe, Schneider told police.
When asked by police how she knew Anderson was aiming at Camentz, she said, “Oh my God, because he was right next to me.”
Schneider said she checked Camentz, but didn’t see holes in his shirt or blood. She said she tried to convince Camentz to let her take him to the hospital. Camentz refused, insisting he simply wanted to go back to the couple’s house and go to sleep.
However, when the three arrived at the home, Camentz turned ghostly white and began complaining of chest pain. Fearing he was having a heart attack, Schneider called 911.
Palm Beach Fire Rescue paramedics quickly realized Camentz had been shot. They rushed him to Delray Medical Center, where he died roughly 30 minutes later.
Feinberg had followed the ambulance to the hospital. Minutes after learning his friend had died of a gunshot wound, Feinberg refused to help police find Camentz’s killer.
Feinberg said he wouldn’t answer any questions without an attorney, Police Detective John Caceres Duque said.
Later, when police arrived at the couple’s house, the detective said he heard Feinberg yelling at Schneider to do the same.
Schneider ignored Feinberg. She told Caceres that the shooting occurred at the timeshare and identified Anderson as the gunman, records show.
Police found Anderson sleeping and arrested him. They discovered a handgun in a wicker basket.
The medical examiner later determined that the type of bullet that killed Camentz matched those found in Anderson’s gun. There were four hollow-point .380-caliber bullets in the six-round magazine and one in the chamber.
“That tells me in my training that there was one round missing,” Caceres testified at the hearing.
A day after the shooting, Feinberg agreed to talk to police. He said he had been friends with Anderson for years, but the relationship soured when Anderson became a huge fan of former President Donald Trump.
Still, he said, while they avoided talking politics, he and Anderson had other shared interests. They partied together and both enjoyed inhaling nitrous oxide, he told police.
Before the shooting, the mood was genial, he said. He said he and Anderson argued briefly about their spiritual and religious beliefs, but Camentz didn’t offer his views.
Like his wife, Feinberg said he was stunned when the gunshot rang out. But, he said, he tried to make a joke of it.
“Mr. Anderson, did you accidentally discharge a weapon,” he asked Anderson, according to Caceres’ report. Feinberg said he asked Camentz if he was hit. “No, it’s the sound,” Camentz replied.
Feinberg, a licensed mental health counselor, 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.
Still, Feinberg admitted, the shooting was inexplicable. “I don’t know, why would he come out and done some sort of thing with some sort of weapon?” he told Caceres.
While Feinberg apologized to police for initially refusing to talk to them, Dutko said he suspects Feinberg had good reasons for waiting.
As Feinberg told Caceres, he and his wife had “corroborated each other’s memories of the incident.” The two had a chance to compare notes, correct their earlier statements and make sure their stories matched, Dutko said.
Initially, Schneider told police that the shooting took place near the pool at the complex. Later, she said, it was inside the apartment.
Feinberg also changed his story. At first, he said he was on his way to the hot tub when a shot rang out. He also remembered hearing a loud bang while he was still in his car.
Before Camentz was taken to the hospital, Feinberg told police he pulled up his friend’s shirt and realized Camentz had been shot.
At the hospital, Feinberg attributed his confusion about the shooting to “a cognitive disorder.” While Feinberg didn’t elaborate, in his March 2023 resignation letter from
Broward’s government-run addiction center, he said poor health forced him to quit.
“I’ve been on (medical leave) and under care for some time now, due to the illness I contracted during the pandemic,” he wrote. “It has become evident that my health has worsened recently.”
Wilensky vigorously disputed the notion that Feinberg or his wife concocted stories. They both offered starkly similar accounts of what took place. Schneider’s description matches the evidence. And, she said, Feinberg added a salient detail.
He said he saw a green light flash when the gun went off. Caceres said that the gun police found in Anderson’s timeshare was equipped with a green laser sight.
Wilensky also said a laboratory analysis found Anderson’s DNA on the gun’s trigger and grip. The review showed that neither Schneider, Feinberg nor Camentz touched the gun, she said.
Wilensky described Anderson as a dangerous man.
“This is someone who can flip on a dime this quickly,” she told Rowe. “This cordial gathering turned into someone being shot in the chest.”
Other than several arrests for drunk driving, Anderson has never been in trouble with the law, Dutko countered. Referring to the support Anderson had from the roughly 10 family members who gathered for the hearing, Dutko asked Rowe to release Anderson on a $100,000 bond with house arrest.
In a six-page ruling issued in March, Rowe rejected the request. Wilensky had provided “substantial evidence” that Anderson fatally shot Camentz, she wrote.
Questions Dutko raised about Schneider and Feinberg may eventually come into play, she added.
“The inconsistencies raised by (Anderson’s attorneys) do not raise substantial questions of fact at this point, although with further discovery and proof, facts may exist which ultimately are more favorable to (Anderson) at trial,” Rowe wrote.
Dutko has asked Rowe to reconsider her ruling.
So, Anderson remains jailed. No trial date has been set. If convicted, Anderson could be sentenced to life in prison.
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