FL: Shooter Found not guilty after 4 years in Jail; Driver serving 30 year Sentence in convoluted case

In a bizarre domestic case in Florida, a jury has found the man who shot and killed his former girlfriend’s boyfriend and severely wounded her, not guilty.  The father of the girlfriend’s four children drove the shooter to and from the shooting, and had been the employee of the shooter.   The driver was also a convicted felon.  The shooting occurred in 2009.  The driver was convicted in 2010 and is serving a 30 year sentence for being an accessory to murder, after the fact.  From tbo.com:

A jury last month found Eric William “Scooter” Bazemore guilty of the Sept. 13 attempted murder of Shirley Sexton, the mother of his four children.

He was acquitted of the first-degree murder of Sexton’s new boyfriend Eric Brewer, but Bazemore was convicted of being an accessory after the fact to both shootings.

Circuit Judge Daniel H. Sleet rejected appeals for leniency by Bazemore’s family.

Bazemore told authorities William Previtt fired the shots. At first, he said he saw the shooting. Later, he said he drove Previtt to the couple’s home where they were shot in the driveway, but never knew what Previtt planned.

 But a jury found William Privett “not guilty” in 2015.  He had been held in jail for four years, but was released on bond in 2013.   From tbo.com:

TAMPA — William Privett, the Ruskin landscaper who claimed to have shot his ex-girlfriend by accident and killed her new boyfriend in self defense, was acquitted of first-degree murder Tuesday.

The jury took about 45 minutes to make a decision, defense attorney Barry Cohen said.

“In this case, justice prevailed,” he said.

Privett, 57, was accused of murdering Eric Brewer and shooting Shirley Sexton five times while she was sitting next to Brewer in a car. The shootings happened in 2009.

Bazemore, the driver, was a convicted felon before the shooting, which is what contributed to his 30 year sentence.  Privett said that he was there to retrieve property that had been stolen from him in a recent armed home invasion, where he said that he had recognized Brewer and Sexton.  Privett was also said to have had an affair with Eric Brewer’s wife.  Privett had been charged with domestic violence and with threatening Sexton earlier.  From tbo.com:

Sexton and Previtt’s relationship was also stormy and featured patterns of escalating violence, court records show. In January 2006, Sexton was cut by a rock thrown at her face. Previtt was charged in the incident, but Sexton did not press charges, records show.

Fourteen months later, Previtt grabbed Sexton during an argument about dinner, pushed her into a wall, pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot her and her two children, sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Prosecutors say charges against Previtt were dropped after Sexton refused to cooperate.

Eric Basemore’s, the driver, convictions were appealed once, and a new trial ordered.  from findlaw.com:

Eric Bazemore appeals his judgments and sentences arising from his involvement in a murder and an attempted murder. We reverse his judgment for attempted second-degree murder and remand that offense for a new trial. We affirm his judgments for accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and accessory after the fact to shooting into a vehicle. Because the reversal might affect Mr. Bazemore’s sentences on the two judgments that we affirm, we reverse all of the sentences.

It is unknown if another appeal is planned.  How can a person be convicted of being an accessory after the fact, in a case where the principal is found not guilty?  We have a person serving a 30 year sentence for accessory after the fact to a crime that has now been found by a jury not to be a crime.  None of the people involved in this convoluted criminal construction seem to be exemplars of public or private virtue.  People who commit crimes are often victims of other criminals.   The permutations of sex, violence and crime in this case are enough to provide plots for a dozen crime novels.

It is the first such case that I have heard of, but there may be others.  Perhaps there is precedent.  Comments from knowledgeable lawyers are welcomed.

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