Police: Keys man killed man who urinated on building
The Key West businessman accused of fatally shooting an unarmed man for urinating on the outside of a building the gunman owns was denied bond during his first appearance before a judge.
Monroe County Judge Mark Wilson on Tuesday ordered Lloyd Preston Brewer III, 57, held in jail until his next scheduled court appearance March 2.
Prosecutors said Brewer shot 21-year-old Garrett Hughes once in the stomach after a brief confrontation outside the Conch Town Liquor and Lounge at 3340 N. Roosevelt Blvd. around 12:30 a.m. Monday.
Both men were intoxicated, but Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield said after reviewing security camera footage that it’s clear that the only person acting aggressively was Brewer.
According to Mansfield, Hughes, a former Key
West High School athlete, was with friends at the bar when he walked outside and urinated on the wall.
Brewer is seen walking up to him, lifting up his shirt, pulling out a gun and firing it once into Hughes’ torso. Brewer then fired another shot that did not hit Hughes, prosecutors said.
Key West police said Brewer told them he shot Hughes in self-defense, but Mansfield said the camera footage tells another story.
“There is no justifiable claim to self-defense because the kid was never armed and never advanced on the shooter. The shooter advanced on him,” Mansfield told the Miami Herald/FLKeysnews.com.
Brewer owns the building that houses Conch Town Liquor and Lounge, but not the establishment.
He is charged with second-degree murder and discharging a firearm while intoxicated.
His attorney, Donald Yates, did not return phone and email messages requesting comment on the case.
If the incident had happened a year earlier, Brewer would also face charges that he violated a pre-trial intervention agreement that, among other things, prohibited him from carrying a firearm for 12 months.
The terms of the agreement ended in April 2022. It was a deal he made with prosecutors not to proceed with domestic abuse charges against him from a Feb. 23, 2021, incident in which he was accused of punching his live-in partner in the face while she drove him home from the Stock Island Yacht Club.
According to court documents, the woman told police that as the two continued to argue in the kitchen of their Driftwood Drive home, he grabbed a handgun the family kept in the pantry. According to the arrest report from that night, the woman told Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies that after he grabbed the gun, she responded, “Really?” and he then put it away.
In addition to being a standout football and lacrosse player at Key
West High, Hughes came from a well-known family in the Southernmost city.
His father, John Hughes, is the head football coach at the school. He released the following statement on his Facebook page Tuesday about his son:
“I simply don’t have the words to say how much I love you. You and your brothers are the greatest gift I have ever received. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to be your dad. You have a million dollar smile and a personality just as big, but your heart was even bigger.”