‘Lil Jimmy’ gets time served for revenge shooting

WEST PALM BEACH — A month after Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies say Exavia Freeman shot at Jimmy Porter Sr. and missed, Jimmy “Lil Jimmy” Lacoria Porter Jr. caught up with Freeman, 20, of Belle Glade on Avenue D and made sure he didn’t miss.

The single gunshot wound to the eye sent Freeman to the hospital on July 25 and landed the younger Porter behind bars facing a first-degree attempted murder charge. But on Monday, a week before a trial in his case was to begin, Porter, 19, of Belle Glade, pleaded guilty to a lesser aggravated battery charge and was sentenced to the nearly six months he’s already served at the Palm Beach County jail.

Palm Beach County Judge Barry Cohen sentenced Porter as part of a plea agreement between defense attorney Abigail Langweiler and Assistant State Attorney Jenica Lopez, according to court records. Cohen also gave Porter a year to pay $1,020 in court fines.

According to arrest reports, Freeman was sitting in a chair on a sidewalk in the 600 block of Southwest Avenue D in Belle Glade just before 10 p.m. when a man he later identified as “Lil Jimmy” approached him armed with a gun and shot him.

Palm Beach County sheriff ’s detectives said deputies received a complaint about a month before the shooting that Freeman had shot at the elder Porter, who wasn’t injured and refused to seek charges against Freeman.