Background: The Olive Garden location in Midland, Mich. (Google Maps). Inset: Robert Monit (Midland County Jail).
A Michigan man who was convicted of shooting his fiancee in the face at an Olive Garden in 2024 was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison.
Robert Monit, 42, was found guilty by a jury of 10 felonies and one misdemeanor in connection with a shooting at the Italian chain restaurant on June 2, 2024. His victim was his fiancee, 42-year-old Melissa Guerra, who later testified in his defense, claiming the shooting was accidental. However, witnesses at the Midland, Michigan, scene testified they saw Monit attack Guerra. One restaurant patron heard him scream, “The stupid b— deserves to die” before he beat her with the gun.
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Midland County Circuit Court Judge Michael Beale sentenced Monit on Wednesday to 20 to 35 years in prison. His convictions included assault with intent to murder, aggravated domestic assault, six counts of assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer, and other firearm-related felonies, plus a misdemeanor charge, court records showed.
Monit shot Guerra in the face, with the bullet hitting her left ear and exiting through her right eye.
The Midland Daily News reported from the courtroom for the trial, which included testimony from Midland Police Department officers who arrested Monit after the shooting. Officers testified that Monit said his name was “Satan” and cursed, bit, and spat at them, all of which was caught on body camera.
Other witnesses included restaurant patrons. Erna Nash, who was having dinner at the Olive Garden with her sister and nephew, testified that she saw Monit with the gun and saw him fire it. She said, “I thought it was a joke. I thought it was a fake gun.” Nash also told the court that she heard Monit scream, “The stupid b— deserves to die,” and saw him beat Guerra in the head with the gun while she was covered in blood.
Another Olive Garden diner, James Reau, testified that he saw that Monit “had the woman by her hair and was pistol-whipping her with his left hand.”
Guerra testified in Monit’s defense after being arraigned for failing to appear in court. She stated that she did not remember being shot or beaten, and that Monit was not “capable of harming anyone.” Guerra and Monit’s defense team maintained the shooting was not intentional.
The Midland Daily News reported that during Guerra’s testimony, she explained that her ex-husband was causing Monit a great deal of distress. The night they went to the Olive Garden, Guerra said that Monit believed her ex-husband was in the restaurant’s parking lot and was planning to harm them. He almost dialed 911 to call the police.
Reau had testified earlier that when he asked Monit why he shot Guerra, he answered, “They were going to kill me. They were waiting in the parking lot.”
Guerra testified that she did not know Monit was armed that night. She said “something changed” in him before the shooting, and she has not spoken to him since. Prosecutors claimed the couple went to the restaurant to break up, but Guerra denied this.
“We were two peas in a pod,” she told the court, “That’s my person.”
