Benjamin Lee Powell

One Pebble Creek resident has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a fellow Pebble Creek man.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, just before midnight on July 20, Benjamin Lee Powell, 25, was arrested and charged with second degree murder in the July 19 stabbing death of 18-year-old Grant Woodham in the Pebble Creek community of New Tampa, where Powell also is a resident.

After conducting numerous interviews, deputies discovered that Woodham had left a friend’s house on July 19 in his black 2010 Dodge Charger to sell drugs to an unknown buyer. Woodham’s car was not found at the crime scene.

Deputies identified Powell as a person of interest and, after running surveillance on him, he was found driving Woodham’s car at 4601 E. Citrus Cir., just east of Busch Gardens.

Woodham’s death was declared a homicide by the Medical Examiner’s office on July 20. HCSO says that just before 8 p.m. on July 19, a resident of the Pebble Creek community, located off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., called to report an unknown man, later identified as Woodham, bleeding on the sidewalk in front of his home on Fox Hearst Dr. Hillsborough Fire Rescue (HFR) responded and pronounced Woodham dead at the scene due to severe upper body trauma. No further details were available at our press time.