No murder charge for 2 shoplifting suspects
Suspected accomplice killed by OPD at Colonial Plaza
Two accused shoplifters arrested after Orlando police officers fatally shot a suspected accomplice at the Colonial Plaza shopping center this month likely won’t be charged with murder in his death, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Jocelyn Villot, 32, and Brittany Chandler, 26, have been in the Orange County Jail since May 7, when two officers shot Juan Alberto Silva as he tried to drive away from Colonial Plaza on East Colonial Drive.
Villot and Chandler were in the back of the van, having just shoplifted clothing from Marshall’s, police said.
Silva’s family has questioned why he was shot. The Orlando Police Department has a policy against firing into vehicles, although police Chief John Mina has said he believed the officers were in fear for their lives when they opened fire.
Besides grand theft and resisting arrest without violence, Orlando police arrested Villot and Chandler on charges of thirddegree felony murder, under a state law that allows a person taking part in a felony to be charged with murder if someone dies during the crime.
Villot was in court Thursday for a bond hearing.
“There doesn’t appear to be evidence that she or the other co-defendant encouraged the driver to commit a violent felony,” Assistant State Attorney Will Jay said Wednesday.
He told Circuit Judge Leticia Marques he plans to file paperwork formally charging Villot by Friday, and that the murder charge won’t be on it.
Mina said he had “no response” to the announcement.
“That’s the decision the prosecutor makes, so the only thing we can do is do our jobs, give the case to the state attorney’s office, and what they do with it, it’s up to them,” he said.
Villot’s attorney, Roger Weeden, questioned whether the value of the merchandise stolen exceeded $300, the threshold for felony grand theft. If the clothing was worth less than $300, the appropriate charge would be misdemeanor petit theft, he said.
Marques set a $2,500 bond