Gun charge dropped after teen gets 30 years
Samuel Turner killed another teen in October 2014.
WEST PALM BEACH — Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped a felony gun charge against a Riviera Beach teen recently sentenced to 30 years in prison for killing another teen in a confrontation that stemmed from a Facebook feud.
Samuel Turner, who will turn 19 on Thursday, likely will be headed to pri son thi s week after Assi st ant State Attorney Terri Skiles announced that the state would be dropping a gun charge against him in the case surrounding the October 2014 shooting death of Ivan Redding.
A jury at the end of Turner’s December 2015 first-degree murder trial convicted him of a lesser second-degree murder charge.
Circuit Judge Charles Burton in October sentenced Turner to 30 years in prison, 10 ye ars longer than the 20-year punishment that Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Marshall requested.
Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Ramsey, who represented Turner during the trial, said more than a year a go t h a t s h e p l a n n e d t o appeal the conviction. The appeal likely will center on video that captured part of the shooting in a car on the 2900 block of Old Dixie Highway, a video Ramsey says raised doubts about whether Turner was the shooter.
“The evidence was weird,” she said. “It was a case where every witness told a story — a very different story.”
Prosecutors said the confrontation between the teens marked the climax of a Facebook war of words between Redding’s sisters and Turner’s friend, Fiando Toussaint.
Turner had driven with his sisters to the convenience store on Old Dixie Highway when the sisters saw Toussaint and Turner, resulting in verbal sparring that led to a fist fight between Redding and Turner.
In the aftermath, Assistant State Attorney Lauren Godden told jurors during Turner’s trial, Turner told someone to go get his gun. Moments later, Redding had an ultimately fatal gunshot wound to his chest.
“Everyone knows Samuel Turner lost that fight, that’s why he was so angry,” Godden said.