In a manslaughter case involving a man who was fatally struck by a car after an altercation at a bar, a state appeals court Thursday ruled that a vehicle can be considered a weapon in criminal cases.
A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, however, acknowledged that its conclusion in the Duval County case differed from a stance taken by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in another case and raised the possibility that the Florida Supreme Court should resolve the vehicle issue.
Thursday's ruling stemmed from a 2011 incident in which Adam Lloyd Shepard got into what the 1st District Court of Appeal described as a “tussle” with another man at a sports bar while watching a basketball game.
Shepard was escorted out of the bar but contacted the victim by phone. Shepard was convicted of later hitting the man with a car in a parking lot and leaving the scene, the ruling said.
The appeals court did not name the victim, but The Florida Times-Union reports identified him as Spencer Schott, who died of head injuries. A Duval County jury found Shepard guilty of manslaughter with a weapon and leaving the scene of a crash involving death.
Under state law, the use of a weapon bumped up the manslaughter charge from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony.
Shepard challenged the reclassification of the crime to a first-degree felony based on the car being considered a “weapon.”
But the 1st District Court of Appeal rejected his arguments. “Appellee (the state) argues that an automobile, when used in the manner appellant (Shepard) used it, constitutes a weapon in the common and ordinary meaning of the word,” said the eight-page ruling, written by Judge John T. Brown and joined by judges Scott Makar and Allen Winsor.
“We agree with this `use' argument.” Shepard was sentenced to 45 years in prison on the two charges. But the appeals court ordered a resentencing because it said a circuit judge inappropriately considered Shepard's “lack of remorse” while sentencing him.
