Ruskin man acquitted in shooting death of ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend
TAMPA — William Privett, the Ruskin landscaper who claimed to have shot his ex-girlfriend by accident and killed her new boyfriend in self defense, was acquitted of first-degree murder Tuesday.
The jury took about 45 minutes to make a decision, defense attorney Barry Cohen said.
“In this case, justice prevailed,” he said.
Privett, 57, was accused of murdering Eric Brewer and shooting Shirley Sexton five times while she was sitting next to Brewer in a car. The shootings happened in 2009.
Privett confronted the pair the day after he said three masked intruders broke into his home. He believed Brewer and Sexton were two of them.
He called a friend and asked him to drive him to Brewer’s home to recover what was stolen, records show. On the way there, they spotted Brewer and Sexton in his truck and followed him back to his property, records show.
Privett leaned into Brewer’s car to demand his property back and said Brewer got a “wild look in his eye,” records state. Privett told investigators Brewer reached toward the floor of the vehicle and shoved the car door into Privett, trying to knock him out of the way.
Privett drew his gun as he backed away and started shooting, records show.
Sexton was shot in the head, but Privett never meant to shoot her, Cohen argued.
He also said Privett shot Brewer in self-defense, but in 2013 a judge ruled that a “stand your ground” defense did not apply to the case because Privett escalated the situation on Brewer’s personal property.
In a bail motion filed in 2013, Cohen argued that there were “substantial contradictions and discrepancies” in the state’s case, and that witness statements corroborated Privett’s story. The quick deliberation by the jury Tuesday shows how weak the state’s case was, he said.
Privett was in jail for four years before he was released on $36,000 bail in 2013.
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Twitter: @LizBehrmanTBO
