Defense attorneys for Preston Brewer argued at a Dec. 10 hearing that Brewer was acting in self defense when he fatally shot Garrett Hughes, 21, in the parking lot of a Key West bar on Feb. 13, 2023.
Judge Mark Jones heard statements from defense attorney Jerome Ballarotto and prosecutor Joe Mansfield, as well as testimony from two eyewitnesses – Carson Hughes, Garrett’s brother, and his friend, Blake Arencibia – who were with Hughes the night of the shooting.
Ballarotto filed a motion to dismiss the homicide case against Brewer, 59, based on Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to use deadly force in self-defense without retreating if they are in a place they have a right to be and are not engaged in criminal activity. The defense only applies if the person reasonably believes they are threatened with imminent death or great bodily harm, and it only applies to people who are not the aggressor.
In court filings and at the Dec. 10 hearing, Ballarotto argues that Brewer was in fear for his life and felt threatened that night by Hughes, who the defense claims reached for a beer bottle and approached Brewer aggressively in the parking lot of Conch Town bar after Brewer warned Hughes that he was armed, according to defense filings.
“It’s not until Garrett picks up the beer bottle that Preston draws the gun,” Ballarotto told Judge Jones on Dec. 10. “I don’t know, Judge, if you’ve ever been hit with a beer bottle, but it’s a dangerous weapon in the hands of a young man.”
The defense attorney then told the judge that once he drew his weapon, Brewer “took two giant steps to his left to leave space for Garrett to leave. But Garrett doesn’t do that,” Ballarotto said. “Garrett takes a step toward Preston.
“Under no circumstances was Preston the aggressor that night,” Ballarotto said. “Garrett was the aggressor and he had a posse with him.”
The crowded courtroom, filled mostly with friends and relatives of Garrett Hughes, audibly gasped and groaned in disagreement with Ballarotto’s description of the incident shown in the video footage.
Mansfield, while questioning Carson Hughes on Dec. 10, played the security camera footage from that night.
“When Preston Brewer produced the firearm, Garrett was still turned around urinating on the wall,” Carson Hughes testified at the Dec. 10 hearing. “He lifted his shirt, pulled a gun from his right hip and aimed it at Garrett.”
Mansfield has strongly disagreed with Brewer’s claim of self-defense ever since the shooting occurred shortly after midnight on Feb. 13, 2023, soon after the Super Bowl had ended. But he fully expected it.
Mansfield told the Keys Weekly a day after the shooting in February 2023 that the video shows a drunk and shirtless Hughes outside the bar, which was located in a building owned by Brewer and his family. Hughes was urinating on the side of the neighboring building while wearing shorts and flip flops.
“The shirtless victim was clearly intoxicated and urinating on the wall when the suspect approached,” Mansfield said in February 2023. “I suspect the shooter was annoyed by what he saw, confronted the kid, then pulled a gun and shot him in the stomach, which proved fatal. There are no weapons on or near the victim, nor is the victim seen reaching for anything. Now, I’d bet my 401(k) that the suspect will file a self-defense, Stand Your Ground defense, but the allegation that he was justified in using deadly force is not substantiated by the video evidence in this case.”
Jones did not rule on the Stand Your Ground defense, indicating that the decision — which will determine whether the case is dismissed or goes to trial — will come next month.
