MURDER SUSPECT WAS CLEARED IN 2016 CASE
State’s controversial ‘stand your ground’ law cited in first shooting.
When Omari
WEST PALM BEACH — Fenton shot and injured a man outside a West Palm Beach bar in 2016, he claimed it was self-defense. He said the same when he fatally shot a man in April.
Fenton was cleared in the first shooting under Florida’s “stand your ground” law. He was arrested on a murder charge in the second.
The state’s controversial “stand your ground” law allows people to use deadly force when they feel their lives are threatened, whether in their home or a downtown parking lot or outside a club.
In both shootings, Fenton, a 32-year-old Jamaica native and citizen, said he feared for his life. Both times he left his gun by the victim and stayed at the scene. Both times he admitted to pulling the trigger.
But prosecutors said his fear was legitimate only in the first shooting.That fear is key to determining whether the law applies, said Mike Edmondson, spokesman for the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office.
Edmondson wouldn’t speak to the specifics of the cases — his office is prosecuting the latter — but law enforcement agencies’ records of the shootings detail several differences in the moments prior to the gunfire.
Among them: Fenton had the time — and space — to remove himself from the volatile situation early April 23 prior to fatally shooting Eric Stewart, Palm Beach County authorities determined in pursuing the murder charge.
In the 2016 case, the man Fenton shot seemingly wouldn’t leave Fenton alone.
”You have to look at the (all of ) the circumstances,” said Val Rodriguez, a West Palm Beach attorney. “Every single one needs to be looked at carefully.”
‘Closed his eyes, pointed his gun ... and fired’
The first shooting happened about 4 a.m. on March 7, 2016, in a parking lot on Banyan Boulevard just west of Olive Avenue, authorities said. Fenton was talking to a woman when she was approached by her ex-boyfriend, Eric Thomas.
Thomas wanted the woman to give him back the $100 he had loaned her about a month prior.
The men, who hadn’t previously met, exchanged words. Thomas noticed Fenton had a gun. Thomas said he wasn’t scared. Police noted in their report that Fenton had a concealed-carried permit for it.
Fenton sat down in a car and told Thomas to leave. Thomas approached him and said he wanted to kill Fenton, according to police records.
Fenton got out of the car and they fought. Thomas bit Fenton’s thumb.
Another man, a D J at a nearby pub, approached and told them to break it up. Thomas again threatened to kill Fenton, according to police records.
“At this point, Fenton stated he was in fear and so nervous,” police records state. “Fenton closed his eyes, pointed his gun at the floor and fired it.”
He shot Thomas in the leg. Officers on patrol downtown heard the shots and ran toward the crowd of about 50 gathered near Thomas. Authorities found a camouflage-print, semi-automatic gun on the ground between Fenton and Thomas. Numerous shell casings were scattered nearby.
Thomas was in the fetal position, surrounded by a quickly growing pool of blood. Rescue crews took him to St. Mary’s Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
Fenton placed his jacket on the ground. He was the gunman, he told officers.
West Palm Beach police argued they had evidence to arrest Fenton on a charge of aggravated battery with a firearm. Fenton “aggressively” attacked Thomas, they said after reviewing surveillance-camera footage from the parking lot. He didn’t appear to be afraid for his life.
The State Attorney’s Office decided otherwise. In May 2016, the office said it wouldn’t file charges against Fenton, citing the state’s “stand your ground” law. There wasn’t enough evidence to pursue the felony charge, the office said.
The case was cleared. Thomas, then 42, could not be reached for comment for this story.
‘Reacted by shooting’
A little more than two years later, Fenton, who lives in West Palm Beach, was outside the Caribbean Choice Restaurant and Bakery in the shopping plaza on North Military Trail in suburban West Palm Beach.
He told Palm Beach County sheriff ’s authorities he was talking to two women early April 23 when he heard something crash into a car parked in the Coco Plum Plaza lot near Community Drive.
Stewart stormed after the woman who had hit his car as she drove away. He banged on her car window while holding “a large firearm,” Fenton told sheriff ’s authorities.
Fenton grabbed a gun from his car.
An angry Stewart stormed back into the restaurant, large gun in hand, and demanded to speak to the owner, according to Fenton. He threatened to shoot up the place, a threat Fenton said he took seriously. Fenton said he tried to calm Stewart down.
Surveillance-camera footage showed Fenton walk toward the door to leave the restaurant and continue to engage Stewart as Stewart walked away.
Stewart eventually turned toward Fenton with his hands open, leading detectives to believe he was not armed.
A friend of Fenton stepped between the men. Stewart bumped into Fenton’s friend. “Fenton reacted by shooting,” investigators wrote. He fired a fatal shot into Stewart’s face, records state. Fenton appeared calm after the shooting, authorities said.
They arrested him on a murder charge. Fenton has pleaded not guilty. Legally defending oneself
Court records do not indicate that Fenton’s attorney requesting a “stand your ground” hearing in the April 23 shooting that killed Stewart.
But it’s increasingly common request from defense teams, Edmondson said, because of how the law’s parameters continue to be expanded.
What started as the “castle doctrine,” a law that allows people to defend themselves on their property, now is applicable well beyond the confines of one’s home.
”We’re trying to creatively expand it everywhere to everywhere else,” said Rodriguez, the West Palm Beach attorney.
Most states have some variation of a “stand your ground” law, though it gained particular notoriety in Florida.
The defense hinges on articulating a legitimate fear. In 2016, Fenton’s fear was warranted, the state attorney’s office said. Last month, it wasn’t, authorities said.
Fenton’s public defender has until the case goes to trial to claim his innocence under the “stand your ground” law, as state law doesn’t limit when the claim can be made.