RUTHERFORD COUNTY, N.C. — The man who is a person of interest in the death of a Palm Beach Gardens Lyft driver was scheduled to be in court Wednesday to see if he would be extradited to Florida to face a series of criminal charges.
Instead, plans to bring Matthew Flores, 35, back to Florida are on hold.
In a North Carolina courtroom, Flores' public defender asked that their client have a mental health evaluation. The judge granted the request.
The case was then continued until March 10.
"That basically stops the proceeding until that evaluation is completed," Rutherford County District Attorney Ted Bell said.
Bell said that it typically takes one to two months for the evaluation to be completed.
Flores has not been charged in the disappearance and death of Gary Levin.
An assistant district attorney told Contact 5 that the medical examiner's report for Levin is not complete, and they are still awaiting test results.
Wednesday's hearing came a day after a grand jury in Hardee County indicted Flores on an upgraded charge to first-degree murder, as well as grand theft auto, possession of a firearm by a felon and tampering with evidence, according to court records. The first-degree charges potential makes him eligible for the death penalty.
The indictment relates to the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Jose Carlos Martinez, 43, in Wauchula. Police were searching for Flores in that case by Jan. 30, when Lyft driver Gary Levin, 74, disappeared after dropping off a customer in Okeechobee, about 70 miles east of Wauchula.
Levin's red 2022 Kia Stinger was spotted in Miami, Okeechobee and Gainesville in north Florida after his disappearance. The vehicle was stopped Feb. 2 in North Carolina, where a U.S. Marshals regional task force asked authorities to be on the lookout.
Flores, who was driving the car, was arrested after a chase through three counties, officials said. A body found in Okeechobee after Levin disappeared was eventually identified as the driver, according to the family.
