Accused Fla. man says he didn't kill ex-girlfriend, 3 others

LAND O'LAKES, Fla. -- The suspect in the Florida deaths of his ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend and her parents said in a jailhouse interview he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Everybody's looking at me like I did it," Adam Matos, 28, told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday from the Pasco County Jail. "All the fingers point to me, you know? So I'm not going to change anybody's beliefs."

Matos was arrested Sept. 5 at a Tampa hotel with his 4-year-old autistic son, Ismael "Tristan" Santisteban. The bodies of the child's mother, Megan Brown, her parents, Margaret and Greg Brown and her new boyfriend, Nicholas Leonard, were found on top of a hill in Pasco County. The child was missing for a day before he was found safe in Tampa with Matos.

Matos was arrested and is currently being held on a separate aggravated assault charge. The child is with family.

In the interview, Matos contradicted a police report that he had threatened Megan Brown with a knife on Aug. 28, which is the last day anyone had heard from her. He said that didn't happen. Instead, he said they had an argument over "something stupid," and she asked him to leave.

He also offered up his own theory of what happened. He says a woman who possibly knew Leonard was stalking Megan Brown. He said the woman, who he never saw and didn't know her name, had left Megan Brown threatening letters and voicemails. He said she'd threatened Megan Brown at the family's home.

Matos told the Times he had lived on the street for a few days after the argument with Megan Brown. He wouldn't say how he got the child or where he was planning to go. He said at the advice of his attorney, a public defender, he couldn't divulge more.

Matos was born in Philadelphia and had lived in Allentown, Pa., and New York City. He said he met Brown six years ago and still loves her. He said he had shared responsibility of taking care of Tristan.

He left Pennsylvania with Brown and her family two months ago. They settled in Hudson. He said they broke up two weeks ago, but they ended the relationship on good terms.

He told the Times that his son is "the sweetest kid you'll ever know."

"I want the people to know that I didn't do it," Matos said, "and that I love my son very much."