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Shooting suspect turns himself in after video surfaces

On Behalf of | Apr 11, 2013 | Criminal Defense

A suspect in a March 24 shooting has turned himself into police after witnesses identified him from surveillance video. The 22-year-old man is being charged with first-degree murder due to the fact that the victim succumbed to his injuries shortly after the shooting.

The suspect in the case allegedly had a fight with the victim the day before the shooting took place. A witness claimed that this was the motivation for the suspect confronting the victim at a local food store. Surveillance video shows a man that witnesses identified as the suspect engaged in a conversation with the victim. The victim is then shown being shot down by the other man in the video.

The shooting victim died before ever making it off of the scene. He was hit several times during the shooting. While witnesses of the event had already identified the alleged gunman from the surveillance footage, police were not able to apprehend the suspect until days later, on March 28, when he showed up at the Orient Road Jail to turn himself in.

The suspect in this case faces the most dire of charges, and if the surveillance footage of the crime is sufficient to prove that the suspect was a part of the shooting, he faces an uphill legal battle. It’s important to remember, however, that surveillance footage isn’t an automatic guilty conviction. There are several possible extenuating circumstances that may have yet to come to the surface. A criminal defense lawyer might be able to present these circumstances in a way that’s positive for a suspect, and they might even be able to negotiate a plea deal to help a person avoid the harshest of sentences.

Source: NBC-2, “Suspect turns himself in for fatal Tampa food store shooting as Rodney Dejontae Speights,” Julian Johnson, March 27, 2013

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