Florida Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Deadly Parking Confrontation

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/florida-michael-drejka-sentence.html

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A Florida man was sentenced on Thursday to 20 years in prison in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man during a confrontation last year over a handicapped parking space. The local sheriff had initially refused to arrest the gunman, who is white, citing the state’s sweeping and controversial Stand Your Ground law.

During the sentencing, Circuit Judge Joseph Bulone called the defendant, Michael Drejka, 49, a “wannabe” law enforcement officer and self-appointed “handicapped parking space monitor” according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Drejka fatally shot Markeis McGlockton, 28, outside a convenience store in Clearwater, Fla., on July 19, 2018, and was found guilty of manslaughter in August. He killed Mr. McGlockton in front of the man’s three young children after picking a fight with Mr. McGlockton’s longtime partner, Britany Jacobs, who was pregnant at the time.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County did not initially arrest Mr. Drejka — who had a permit to carry a concealed weapon and said he was acting in self-defense — citing Stand Your Ground. One of Florida’s most far-reaching pro-gun statutes, the law says that people who believe they are in grave danger do not have to retreat from a confrontation, even if they can safely do so, and instead have the right to use deadly force.

Fred Schaub, associate state attorney called the 20-year sentence “appropriate.”

“We never thought Stand Your Ground truly applied in this case,” Mr. Schaub said. He added that his office made that assessment after speaking with Mr. Drejka and reviewing the surveillance footage of the incident.

The video shows Mr. Drejka arguing with Ms. Jacobs as she sat with two children in a parked car in a handicapped space. Mr. McGlockton then emerges from the store with the couple’s 5-year-old son.

Mr. McGlockton shoved Mr. Drejka to the ground. While still sitting on the pavement, Mr. Drejka pulls out a gun and points it at Mr. McGlockton, who backs away. Mr. Drejka then shoots him once in the chest, and Mr. McGlockton, clutching the wound, runs back inside the store, where he collapses.

“Once he had pulled the gun out, there was no need for him to fire,” Mr. Schaub said.

Mr. Drejka’s lawyer, Bryant Camareno, requested Thursday that the judge sentence him to even less than the 11-year minimum recommendation, and instead release him on probation. Mr. Camareno said that Mr. Drejka had no prior record and had shown remorse.

Judge Bulone was not moved by this explanation. “The jury found that the defendant did not act reasonably responsibly,” he said before handing down the sentence. Mr. Drejka faced a maximum sentence of 30 years, and will receive credit for about three months already served.

Mr. Drejka had confronted people parked in this space previously. When the store’s owner asked Mr. Drejka to stop acting as a keeper of the space, he started bringing a gun with him, Judge Bulone said. He also pointed out that when Mr. Drejka attacked Ms. Jacobs for parking illegally, he too was parked illegally next to her.

Stand Your Ground has been widely criticized for exacerbating conflicts. In a letter to the judge, Ross Kaplan, a retired major in the United States Army, raised concerns with the law. “The aggressor can pick a fight and if they begin losing, they can use deadly force,” he wrote.

The mention of the law, in the context of the fatal shooting of a black man, have reminded some of the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in Sanford, Fla., in 2012. In that case, the police initially declined to arrest George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, also invoking the Stand Your Ground law.

Mr. Camareno said that the trial made it clear that there was no evidence that his client’s actions were motivated by race. “It was never a feature of the trial,” he said in an interview Thursday.

Rather, he said that his client had acted out of a desire to protect handicapped spots. “He had a relative that relied on those handicapped spaces and it was something personal,” he said. Mr. Camareno vowed to appeal.

Ben Crump, a lawyer for Ms. Jacobs, said in a statement that the sentence “finally brings some closure and a measure of justice to the family and loved ones of Markeis McGlockton.”

“His three children suffered the unimaginable pain of seeing their father gunned down in cold blood, and now they will grow up without his love and presence,” Mr. Crump said. “Michael Drejka tried to hide behind a stand your ground defense, and will now have to pay the penalty for extinguishing an innocent life.”

A representative from Sheriff Gualtieri’s office said that he declined to comment.

Facing criticism about his decision from some unlikely sources — including the National Rifle Association and Republican legislators who helped write the law — Sheriff Gualtieri reiterated his stance in a news conference in July 2018.

“I didn’t get it wrong,” he said.