How fatal fall ended in manslaughter case
Donneshia Hibbert tries to get past 2016 incident that led to father’s death.
BELLE GLADE — Every few months for the past two years, Donneshia Hibbert has gotten a letter — a quick, to-the-point note.
The man accused of killing her father will be in court.
Each nondescript mailing brings the 20-year-old back to May 2016, when a glass bottle of ginger beer missed its target and hit her 60-year-old father, causing him to fall on to an unfortunately placed piece of metal.
She is forced to relive those weeks by her father’s hospital room, where machines crowded beside the strikingly white sheets covering Egente Hibbert’s lanky body.
Donneshia Hibbert wants to move forward. So when a letter comes to remind her of Shane Skyers’ Sept. 7 court hearing, she won’t attend. She hasn’t been to any of his court appearances, she said.
Skyers, 30, faces manslaughter and aggravated assault charges stemming from a May 27, 2016, argument with his ex-girlfriend. Authorities say that when Skyers threw the bottle and, seemingly unintentionally, hit Hibbert, he caused the man’s death.
Skyers’ attorney, Michael Dueker, declined to comment on the case as it continues to move toward a trial.
“I hate to say (it’s) unbelievable,” Donneshia Hibbert said. “Because it’s happening, but it’s just not something you see or hear about.”
Deadly fall
Two years ago, on a Friday morning in May, Egente Hibbert stood in front of a Belle Glade apartment, enjoying his morning grits, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office records.
His friend and her on-and-offagain boyfriend were arguing
nearby. Court records indicate their yearslong relationship had been rocky and, at times, violent.
Shane Skyers insisted on talking to her that morning, witnesses said. The Post is not naming the woman because she is the alleged victim in unresolved battery and assault cases involving Sky- ers. She could not be reached for comment for this story.
The woman told sheriff ’s authorities she walked to the apartment complex on Southwest Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, as she did most mornings, to chat with friends. Along the way, she noticed Skyers’ black Lexus following her.
The woman said she turned toward the two-story apartment complex, and Skyers pulled up to a Jamaican store nearby on Southwest Fourth Street.
When he came out of the store, he yelled for the woman, witnesses said. She refused to speak with him.
Skyers headed toward her with a bottle of ginger beer in his hand, according to witnesses.
One neighbor yelled for him not to throw the bot- tle. The woman ran inside an apartment.
And Hibbert turned to see what the commotion was about.
As he d id, the bot t le smashed into the left side of his head, records state.
Hibbert fell straight back onto a 1-inch rebar that was sticking out of a parking stop.
Skyers ran toward Hibbert, a neighbor said. He ran away, then back again. He eventu- ally drove off, leaving Hibbert in the care of neighbors.
Rescue crews took Hibbert to Lakeside Medical Center until they realized that his injuries from the metal piercing his skull were too serious for the Belle Glade hospital. They flew him to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
He stayed in the intensive-care unit for about three weeks, records show. Then officials transferred him to a hospice, where he resided until his death on June 27, 2016.
Next of kin
Donneshia Hibbert lay in bed that morning at a rela- tive’s Belle Glade home.
Then she heard her grand- father say something about her father being hurt.
“My first thought was just trying to get over there,” she said. “Initially, I heard that he was hit, but it wasn’t a thing I thought was as serious as it was until I saw him lying in the (hospital) bed unresponsive.”
The then-17-year-old, who just days earlier had graduated from Pahokee High School, spent days by her father’s hospital bed. Sheriff ’s Office records list her, Hibbert’s youngest child, as his next of kin.
His three sons and extended family still lived in his native Jamaica, Hibbert’s daughter said. So in Belle Glade, it was only the two of them.
The single father harped on his daughter about her grades and proudly watched as she thrived in school.
“He kept every report card I ever had,” she said.
He died before she could tell him she got into Florida International University.
She’s about to start her junior year as a biology premed major there.
“(It’s) an unexplainable situation for me,” Donneshia Hibbert said about her father’s death. And as the charges against Skyers move forward, “it’s not a chance to really move on.”