Escambia Man Sentenced For Aggravated Assault With Firearm

June 17, 2015

Gajuan Keangelo Turner  was sentenced by Circuit Judge Terry Terrell to 20 years in state prison for aggravated assault with a firearm that was discharged and 33 months state prison for two counts of shooting into a building, according to State Attorney Bill Eddins.

The sentence for aggravated assault with a firearm that was discharged during the offense, was imposed under Florida’s 10-20-Life Statute, which means the Turner will serve the entire 20 years day for day with no parole.  Turner had previously pled no contest to the offenses on April 21.

The charges stemmed from a shooting that occurred on March 31, 2014, at Oakwood Terrace Apartments, formerly known as Truman Arms Apartments. Turner and two other men confronted a male resident that they believed had a romantic involvement with the girlfriend of one of the other men who was with Turner. Turner and one of the men were armed with concealed handguns.

When one of the shooters grabbed for his gun, the victim turned and ran to an upstairs apartment. Turner and the other shooter fired multiple shots at the male victim as he ran upstairs to his apartment. The bullets struck the windows of the downstairs and upstairs apartments and entered the apartments, where there were other adult victims and children present. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office found 9mm and .380 shell casings at the scene. Their investigation led to the arrest of the defendant and the other two men.

One of the  other men involved, Quamain Williams, who was unarmed during the offenses, was previously found guilty by an Escambia County Jury of principal to aggravated assault and two counts of principal to shooting into a  building. Circuit Judge Terry Terrell  sentenced him to five years in state prison for aiding and abetting the other men who actually did the shooting.

Comments

8 Responses to “Escambia Man Sentenced For Aggravated Assault With Firearm”

  1. David Huie Green on June 19th, 2015 7:52 pm

    REGARDING:
    ” if you was just getting off work and you see your girl in a car with another guy your child is in there and they are getting high ,yea he could have called the police he seen his child in danger and he just didn’t think”

    Or you could shoot into an area filled with other people who had nothing to do with the situation?
    If the purpose is to protect the child, emptying a gun is seldom good for the child’s hearing, breathing or mental stability.

    I fail to see how knowing him better would justify his endangering the lives of so many other people. In fact, many people oppose shooting fleeing humans in the back (even if police do it). It’s just a good thing he was such a poor shot.

    There are two main possibilities:

    1. He couldn’t control himself.
    If this is the case, he needs to be restrained from doing it again since he has no control over himself.
    2. He COULD control himself but chose not to do so.
    In this case, he has shown absolute disregard for the lives of others and there is no reason to believe he won’t do it again if he gets mad.
    In this case he also needs to be restrained from doing it again.

    I wish we could be sure he wouldn’t kill people if not spending half his life in prison, but the lives of others matter too — even the friend’s girlfriend’s new boyfriend.

    David for better people

  2. lars on June 19th, 2015 4:20 pm

    It is somewhat interesting to me that the article does not mention Mr. Turner’s age or whether he had a concelaed weapons permit. I know the number of people with CWP who are convicted of crimes with those firearms is small. I was just wondering if that were the case here. Mary Jane says she knows the family and these young men are respectful. I wonder, were they respectful of the law and were carring firearms legally?

  3. mary jane on June 18th, 2015 12:18 pm

    so true

  4. Jcellops on June 18th, 2015 9:41 am

    Very sad- he looks young- wish these kids didn’t have to always learn the hard way.

  5. mary jane on June 18th, 2015 5:49 am

    its sad that we judge people and not know the real situation , I know this family very well they are church going people the mom raised her children very well .anyone can make a mistake black’s, white’s ,what ever you are .these young men are very respectful young men didn’t hang out like other people one of the guys even worked.put yourself in there shoe’s they young not thinking if you was just getting off work and you see your girl in a car with another guy your child is in there and they are getting high ,yea he could have called the police he seen his child in danger and he just didn’t think he just made a bad choice but just like I said know one’s perfect o by the way they have never been in trouble before this is the first time.

  6. Sage 2 on June 17th, 2015 6:24 pm

    Sad part is that he was working on his GED and now that has been interrupted.

    Oh well, he’ll have the benefits of ALL his physical, social and medical needs taken care of by the use of taxpayer’s dollars for a L O N G time.

  7. Tom on June 17th, 2015 11:15 am

    Another productive, upstanding citizen off to “Club Florida” for an extended vacation.
    Hope he enjoys the hospitality offered by the State of Florida.

  8. Terri Sanders on June 17th, 2015 9:34 am

    Momma always said be careful who you hang out with….

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News