By David Ovalle, McClatchy Newspapers –
MIAMI — Three months after he beat a murder charge under Florida’s controversial self-defense law, Greyston Garcia was shot dead late Tuesday by a stray bullet as he drove his truck through the Liberty City section of Miami.
The shooting was a stunning demise for the Miami man whose case had drawn intense interest nationwide.
A Miami-Dade judge in March granted Garcia immunity under the Stand-Your-Ground law just as furor was spreading over the killing of Trayvon Martin, a Miami Gardens teen killed in Sanford by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman who claimed self-defense.
The 2005 law eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using deadly force to meet a threat.
Garcia, armed with a knife, had chased down a thief who had broken into this truck and stole his radio in Little Havana in January. With one fatal thrust to the chest, Garcia felled Pedro Roteta.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beth Bloom ruled Garcia acted in self-defense because the thief swung a bag filled with heavy car radios, and a medical examiner testified that “a 4-6 pound bag of metal being swung at one’s head would lead to serious bodily injury or death,” her order said.
Late Tuesday, Garcia was driving in the same truck that Roteta had broken into.
He had been driving to his job at a convenience store when gunfire erupted in the 6900 block of Northwest 15th Avenue. A round entered the passenger side window and struck Garcia, whose truck crashed.
Miami police believe Garcia was an innocent victim struck down when two rival gangs began shooting at each other. The shooting also claimed a teenage boy that detectives believe was involved in the gang feud.
The name of the dead teen, believed to be 16 years old, has not been released. Miami homicide detectives are investigating and no arrests have been made.
Garcia, 26, had originally been charged with second-degree murder, and prosecutors planned to appeal Bloom’s ruling.
Police painted Garcia as a vigilante who chased Roteta for more than a block before stabbing him during the Jan. 25 confrontation.
But Bloom, in her order, said that under the law, Garcia “was well within his rights to pursue the victim and demand the return of his property … the defendant had no duty to retreat and could lawfully pursue a fleeing felon who has stolen his property.”
The judge acknowledged in her order that Garcia did not call police or 911, but went home and fell asleep. He later sold two of the car radios and hid the knife. Those actions, however, did not sway the judge in ruling in favor of his self-defense claim.
