KEY WEST, Fla. — A jury of 12 convicted a Key West businessman of first-degree murder Wednesday for shooting and killing a 21-year-old man whom he had confronted for urinating on the side of his building in 2023, prosecutors said.
In an act the Monroe County state attorney called at the time “a whole new level of senselessness,” Lloyd Preston Brewer III, then 57, gunned down an unarmed Garrett Hughes after he left Conch Town Liquor & Lounge, located at 3340 N. Roosevelt Blvd., on Feb. 13, 2023.
Brewer, now 60, owned the small shopping center where the bar is located. Authorities said during the confrontation, Brewer walked towards Hughes, turned away and walked back, before turning back around and walking towards him a second time.
“As Brewer advanced the second time, surveillance video and eyewitness testimony established that Brewer had his hand on the butt of a firearm carried in his waistband,” prosecutors said in a news release. “As he closed the distance, Brewer drew the firearm and extended his arms into a two-handed shooting stance.”
Authorities said Brewer fired two shots, one of which struck Hughes in the abdomen, killing him.
As his case made its way through the court system, Brewer tried to claim self-defense.
Prosecutors, however, said video evidence showed Brewer “had the opportunity to disengage but chose instead to return to the confrontation armed and use deadly force.”
“This was not an act of self-defense,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield said in part in a statement following the verdict. “The jury saw the evidence, rejected Brewer’s account, and held him accountable for a premeditated killing.”
RAW: Key West police interrogation of Lloyd Preston Brewer III
Prosecutors said Brewer’s defense team didn’t present any witnesses.
Assistant State Prosecutor Colleen Dunne said in a statement that the “case showed a conscious and deliberate decision to escalate a confrontation into deadly violence.”
Brewer is now set to be sentenced on Jan. 26. He faces the possibility of life without parole.
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