The Miami Dade State's Attorney office said a 14-year-old who shot and killed a man who was trying to steal a WaveRunner in May of 2011 was justified.
The teen was cleared of any wrong doing in the shooting of 20-year-old Reynaldo Munoz, according to the written conclusion released Tuesday.
Munoz and his girlfriend, Carolina Lopez, planned to steal the Davis' WaveRunner and sell it for $2,000. The Davis family lives on the bay in Miami Shores where their watercraft was docked.
The Davis family's attorney, Jeffrey Weiner, said it's a shame someone had to lose a life.
"Just a terrible, terrible thing and the tragedy is going to live on for the lives of many, many people," Weiner said.
Yasmine Davis and her teen son confronted Munoz as he was trying to motor off. Munoz couldn't hear the demands to leave, because he was deaf and mute.
Weiner said Munoz circled back toward the shore line.
"Mrs. Davis pleaded with him 'please leave, please leave, I've called the police, the police are on the way,'" Weiner said. "He did not react but was intent on continuing his criminal activity and ultimately reaching for what she thought was a gun. The shooting was justified and the state is correct in saying it, the police were correct in saying it, the homicide detectives were correct in saying it."
The State Attorney's Office said the fatal shooting falls in the parameters of the state's Stand Your Ground Law. After two years of investigating, the State's Attorney reached its conclusion.
"It can be found that the ‘appearance’ of danger was so real that a reasonably prudent and cautious person would have believed the danger could only have been avoided through the use of deadly force," the written conclusion said.
Lopez was charged with second-degree murder in Munoz's death but it was later dropped to third-degree grand theft. She agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors last year.
It appears the court battle isn't over, at least not in civil court. The Munoz family has filed suit against the Davis' for wrongful death, a suit Weiner believes will be dismissed based on fact and the law.
"When the Stand Your Ground law was put into effect, the state legislature said, if the shooting is justifiable, there shouldn't be a civil lawsuit," he said.
