Judge Mark Jones on March 7 granted a $3 million bond to Preston Brewer, who police say shot and killed Garrett Hughes in a bar parking lot hours after the Super Bowl in February 2023.
Brewer has been in jail on murder and other charges since the shooting occurred in the rear parking lot of the former Conch Town Liquor & Lounge, 3340 N. Roosevelt Blvd. The bar and liquor store, now closed, were located in a building that the Brewer family owned.
The judge finalized the conditions of Brewer’s release on bond in a March 10 order.
In addition to the $3 million monetary bond, Brewer is to remain confined to his home on Key Haven and subject to constant GPS monitoring.
“The defendant is allowed travel in and around Monroe County, Florida, for ‘life essential’ errands, not to exceed travel beyond the northeast boundary of mile marker 106,” the order states. “‘Life essential’ purposes may include visits with defense attorneys, legitimate work purposes, church, doctor appointments, and emergency medical needs, or other matters pre-approved by pre-trial services.”
Brewer must also relinquish his passport and all firearms, including spear guns, and is prohibited from using the boat he owns. He is prohibited from using drugs or alcohol and will submit to a minimum of three random urinalysis tests per month, the order states.
The judge also ruled that Brewer may have no contact with Hughes’ family, the witnesses in the case, the former owner of Conch Town, or three of his business and financial associates unless legal counsel is present.
Finally, Brewer must stay away from and have no contact with the location of 3440 N. Roosevelt Blvd., which is where the shooting occurred.
That property, a commercial building, now belongs to Hughes’ parents, John Hughes and Lesley Touzalin, according to county property records.
Those records show that the building’s ownership changed on Oct. 1, 2024, when it was sold for $4 million. It is now owned by a limited liability company called GDH22 LLC, managed by John Hughes and Touzalin.
It is unclear whether the victim’s parents bought the building, or acquired it as part of a confidential settlement that was reached in a wrongful death civil lawsuit they filed against Brewer shortly after Garrett Hughes’ death.
How it happened
Hughes, who was 21 at the time of his death, left Conch Town Lounge at 12:26 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2023, after playing darts with his brother and two friends. He is visibly inebriated in video security footage of the bar’s rear parking lot. Hughes walks to the back of the parking lot and stands between two parked cars while urinating against the wall of an adjacent building, which was not owned by Brewer.
Shirtless and unarmed, Hughes was wearing shorts and flip flops when Brewer exited the bar and approached Hughes while exchanging words with him over the urination. The footage shows Brewer, then 57, raising his shirt to reveal a handgun while crossing the parking lot toward Hughes. During a seconds-long physical altercation, Brewer shot Hughes in the abdomen. He died a short time later at the hospital.
The judge on Feb. 12 denied Brewer’s self-defense claim, which, if granted, would have dismissed the murder charge against him.
Jones ruled last month that Brewer was the aggressor, writing in his five-page order, “It is clear to the court that the defendant, Lloyd P. Brewer, III, instigated his deadly confrontation with Garrett Hughes. … The court finds that stand your ground immunity was not enacted to protect someone like Lloyd Brewer under these circumstances, which he created,” the order states.
The judge further said, “the defendant shot a half-naked, drunken, unarmed man,” and added that Brewer did not have a reasonable belief that he was facing imminent death or great bodily harm.
No trial date has been set, as Brewer and his defense attorneys are appealing the judge’s denial of his stand your ground, or self-defense, claim. That appeal will have to be heard by the 3rd District Court of Appeal before the trial can proceed.
