Jury finds Duval shooter guilty

Prosecutors argued Thursday that Derek David, a Louisiana man who fired four rounds down a crowded side road into the bustling Duval Street in Key West during the early morning hours of March 21, 2016, hitting three tourists, is someone who lost his temper after taking a beating from two men who stopped him from repeatedly shoving his wife to the ground.

David’s attorneys countered during closing arguments for his trial that their client used justifiable deadly force to protect himself and his wife, and the fact that he shot three bystanders in the process doesn’t matter under Florida law.

“If you shoot at someone in lawful self defense, and someone innocent gets shot, the justification for the use of deadly force transfers to the unintended victim.” his lawyer Donald Barrett told jurors during closing arguments. “That’s the law in Florida.”

A six-member jury Thursday convicted David on three counts of attempted manslaughter with a firearm, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and discharging a firearm in public.

He faces a maximum sentence of almost 60 years in prison. Information on a sentencing date was not immediately available

Assistant Monroe County State Attorney Colleen Dunne argued David, 35, had no reason to believe his wife, Jodie David, was in any danger, and the only reason Derek David fired his weapon that night was because he was angry he lost a fight.

“He’s not being concerned for his wife,” Dunne said. “He’s an angry man.”

Security cameras from several businesses along Duval, Charles Street and Telegraph Lane caught footage of all the events in question. That video, along with footage from Key West Police Department dashboard and body cameras, was played for jurors during the trial.

David pulled his .380 Ruger pistol after being beaten up by two men who remain unidentified, who ran down Charles Street and pushed him away from his wife as the couple were shoving and screaming at each other as they walked. Derek David was trying to get Jodie home to Sugarloaf Key, where they lived at the time, because she was drunk after a night of bar hopping.

David swung at one of the men who was wearing a fedora hat — referenced only as Fedora Hat Man during the trial because police were never able to find him. But Fedora Hat man was spry and clearly a decent boxer. He juked around the 300-pound David and landed several blows, knocking him to the ground. The other man, wearing a basketball jersey, shoved David as he tried to get up.

“He’s not a very good fighter,” Dunne said. “Maybe that’s why he carries his gun.”

After the brief scuffle, David walks off Charles Street and onto Telegraph Lane, where Fedora Hat Man follows him, punches him and shoves him into a row of parked scooters.

Barrett said Derek David showed reasonable restraint by not pulling his gun out during the fight, and that he only brandished it when he had reason to perceive his wife’s life was in imminent danger.

“I’ve been beaten down to the ground by two men. I’ve been kicked. And they’ve thrown a bottle at me,” Barrett said to jurors. “You know what he didn’t do? He didn’t pull out his gun.”

“He couldn’t have taken on the two guys physically. He could have shot them. But he walked away.”

The shooting

Meanwhile, cameras on Charles Street film Jodie punching and pulling at the shirt of a Louisiana man named Trent Pauls, who was with his friend, Brendan Boudreau, 27. The two said during the trial they walked down Charles from Irish Kevin’s bar on Duval after hearing the Davids fighting. They intended to intervene on Jodie David’s behalf until Fedora Hat Man arrived and hit Derek David.

Derek David saw Jodie tussle with Pauls. Even though camera footage clearly shows Pauls trying to get away from Jodie as she hits him, Derek David claims his wife was being “tossed like a rag doll” by the two men. He said he thought they were part of a group with Fedora Hat Man and the man in the jersey. They were not.

“He was not going to let the same thing happen to his wife that happened to him,” Barrett said.

Security camera footage shows David waits 20 seconds as he looks down Charles Street from Telegraph Lane. He pulls his .380 from his back waistband of his shorts, points it into the air, racks it, then points it forward and fires.

Boudreau was hit in the right thigh as he ran down Charles to Duval, taking shelter inside a T-shirt shop lying on his back in between clothing racks. The bullet entered right underneath his buttocks and exited near his groin, he testified Monday. Scott McBride, 54, vacationing from Daytona Beach with his girlfriend, was also struck in the right thigh, with the bullet exiting beneath the back of his knee, as he walked toward Irish Kevin’s.

Filmmaker Reid Ogden, 28, was on a first date with the woman who remains his girlfriend to this day as the two walked in front of Charles on Duval. He was hit in the left forearm. The bullet exited under his arm and pierced his abdomen. All three men recovered but are left with physical scars and psychological trauma, they testified during the trial.

“Their lives were forever changed because of that man’s crimes,” Dunne said, pointing to David.

After the shooting, video on Charles Street shows Jodie David trying to get the gun from Derek, and the two briefly shove each other and Derek walks away toward Telegraph Lane.

“What does the defendant do after firing four rounds, four rounds in defense of his wife?” Dunne asked. “Does he console her? Does he take her into his arms? He leaves her. He leaves her after he has a physical altercation with her.”

As he does, a man exits the Smoking Tuna bar, and David points his gun at him. The man, Kenneth Scott, backs into the bar pleading, “Don’t.”

A bouncer from the Red Garter strip club on Charles, David Smith, called 911 and followed David until the police arrive. An officer arrived at the Kino Plaza shopping center on Fitzpatrick Street, and his dashboard camera from the squad car shows what prosecutors say is David pointing his gun at Smith.

David ignored multiple orders to stop and drop his gun. Officers stun-gunned him when he came out of an alley. Cuffed on the ground, David is shown on body camera footage yelling repeatedly, “I’ve done nothing wrong sir. You’re on camera sir. There’s no shooter sir. You’re tripping out sir.”

This story was originally published March 1, 2018 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Jury finds Duval shooter guilty."