Lloyd Preston Brewer III is accused of shooting and killing a man for allegedly urinating on his family's strip mall. (Monroe County Sheriff's Office)
A Florida strip mall owner accused of shooting and killing a man who urinated on his building earlier this year recently got an upgrade on his murder charges after being indicted by a grand jury.
Lloyd Preston Brewer III, 57, now stands accused of one count each of murder in the first degree, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and violation of a concealed firearm permit, according to the four-page indictment handed up in Monroe County last week.
The defendant was previously charged with one count of murder in the second degree with a deadly weapon without premeditation over the fatal shooting of Garrett Hughes, 21, an unarmed man who died in an alleyway behind the Conch Town Liquor & Lounge on Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West on Feb. 13. Brewer's aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge is for allegedly threatening the victim's brother, Carson Hughes, with the same gun that killed the victim.
The recently-released indictment is largely conclusory and offers few details.
The dead man's parents filed a terse memo under the terms of Marsy's Law, a Sunshine State victims' rights constitutional amendment, arguing for Brewer's continued pre-trial detention.
The memo seeks to make the case that the defendant is a severe flight risk – someone likely to try and flee the jurisdiction of law enforcement in Florida. The court document argues that Brewer has "substantial ties outside the state," including numerous tracts of generational landholdings in Georgia.
The defendant's extreme wealth is repeatedly noted – and used against him – in the victim's family's no-bail argument. The memo is only four pages but is bolstered with dozens of pages of exhibits documenting the Brewer family's extensive property interests, securities, and other forms of wealth.
"Brewer and his father/business partner have a practice of transferring significant assets between themselves by way of trusts and corporate entities," the detention memo continues. "This includes assignments of loans and mortgages, transfers of real estate, and loans. This shows Brewer's financial sophistication. It also shows his ability, knowledge, and familiarity with the movement of assets. Such knowledge could be employed to facilitate flight."
The memo also takes note of a lengthy criminal history for the defendant dating back to 1985 that is described as including "acts of violence, firearms, assault, alcohol, drugs, and dishonesty."
The memo argues that Brewer is "a danger to the community" due to the facts of the present case against him and the four prior incidents detailed in the memo. Additionally, the memo says the defendant "has a vessel to his name, which would be used to facilitate flight," which refers to a boat and a boat trailer.
Monroe County jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Brewer is currently held on a "no bond" status.
Brewer claims he killed Garrett Hughes because he had to.
The defendant admittedly fired the fatal shot and claimed self-defense in his initial 911 call and later during an interrogation. Prosecutors, however, say Brewer was not being threatened.
"I stood my ground," Brewer told detectives. "I feared for my life."
"Brewer said it appeared that Hughes was going to pull something from his waistband," a Key West police detective wrote in a report obtained by Miami-based ABC affiliate WPLG. "Brewer could not identify exactly what was aggressive or threatening about Hughes' behavior and denied having seen Hughes in possession of any weapons."
The defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
At a pre-trial hearing in late April, Judge Mark Wilson nixed a defense effort to obtain hair samples from the dead man and other witnesses in the case. That effort was waged to erode their credibility by showing the presence of drugs in their systems, WPLG reported at the time.
"It's not that their level of intoxication wouldn't be relevant or helpful to impeach their testimony, but legal precedent prevails," the judge said, according to Keys Weekly. "The witnesses are not direct parties to this case and have a right to privacy."
A bail hearing is slated for later on Wednesday.