KEY WEST, Fla. (TCN) — A man has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2023 fatal shooting of a friend who urinated on the side of a building he owned after the two had shared drinks at a bar.
WKRC reports that on Feb. 13, 2023, Lloyd Preston Brewer III, 57, caught 21-year-old Garrett Hughes urinating on the side of his strip mall building. According to video security footage, Hughes exited the bar, located in the strip mall, without a shirt on, and Brewer followed him. Hughes then reportedly urinated on the side of the building and Brewer shot Hughes in the abdomen, per prosecutors. According to authorities, both Brewer and Hughes were intoxicated at the time of the shooting.
Hughes’ friends, who were also at the scene, called authorities. Hughes was pronounced dead before he could be taken to a hospital, according to WKRC.
Brewer claimed he shot Hughes in self-defense, but according to Assistant Monroe County State Attorney Joseph Mansfield, “There is no justifiable claim to self-defense because the kid was never armed and never advanced on the shooter, the shooter advanced on him,” WKRC reports.
WPLG reported in 2023 that Brewer was initially charged with second-degree murder and held without bond. On April 3, 2023, the outlet reported Hughes’ parents filed a wrongful death suit against Brewer and associated entities. The suit did not name Conch Town Liquor & Lounge, the bar in the strip mall that Brewer owns and where they went before Hughes was killed, but said, “By furnishing excessive amounts of alcohol to a known, habitual drunkard (Brewer), the (defendants) became liable for the injury and damage caused by and resulting from (Brewer)’s intoxication,” according to WPLG.
A jury convicted Brewer of first-degree murder on Jan. 21, WPLG reports. After the verdict was read, Chief Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield, “The jury saw the evidence, rejected Brewer’s account, and held him accountable for a premeditated killing.”
According to WPLG, Brewer is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 26.
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