Man Convicted Fatally Shooting Cantonment Man In Lounge Parking Lot Faces Up To 30 Years

March 5, 2025

A man faces up to 30 years when he is sentenced this week for the fatal shooting a Cantonment man in the summer of 2023 at a Pensacola lounge.

Michael Andrew Rodriguez, now 40, was originally charged with second degree murder but was convicted by an Escambia County jury of a lesser offense of manslaughter.

Rodriguez could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison on Wednesday by Judge John Simon on the lessor manslaughter conviction. The maximum penalty for the original second-degree murder charge was life in prison.

He shot victim Damon Caldwell in the neck at Sam’s Lounge on Old Corry Field Road on July 21, 2023. Video surveillance showed a confrontation between Rodriguez and Caldwell outside the lounge before Rodriguez draws a firm and shoots Caldwell, who falls to the ground. Rodriguez then backs away, firing multiple additional shots toward the crowd near Caldwell. Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies noted in their report that Caldwell never presented a firearm or any other weapon and did not utilize any other form of deadly force against Rodriguez.

Rodriguez later contacted law enforcement and told deputies that he planned to turn himself in, but he failed to do so. The ECSO tracked Rodriguez him and arrested him, as he told them he “knew he messed up”.

An Escambia County woman is awaiting trial and an accessory after the fact for allegedly helping Rodriguez, her boyfriend, after the shooting. According to investigators, Deomi Polyzos drove to the lounge and picked Rodriquez up after the murder before making stops” presumably to dispose of evidence/the firearm utilized”, an arrest report states.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under General