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Tampa man on trial for pawn shop shooting
Gloria Gomez reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - A jury found a Tampa man guilty of attempted murder, but not before an accusation of jury intimidation paused court proceedings.
Jarrod Mingo's attempted murder trial nearly went off the rails Thursday after a member of the suspected accused pawn shop shooter’s family was accused of taking photos of the jury with their cell phone.
On Wednesday, Hillsborough County deputy Leonard Lim was asked by a juror to check it out.
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On Thursday, Deputy Lim was questioned by the judge, and he said nothing was found on the woman's phone,
"Didn’t see any pictures of the jury or anything that looked remotely close to being courtroom photos," stated Lim.
As a precaution, each juror was questioned about it, but only one juror expressed fear.
"I’m just concerned about my safety," stated a juror.
That juror was let go and Judge Mark Kiser thanked him for his service.
Jarrod Mingo changed from his orange jail uniform to a suit after his appearance Tuesday.
"I’m going to go ahead and release you from the jury. I want to give you a deep appreciation for your time and your service willingness to be here and participate in the process," said Kiser.
The jurors that remained were taken back to the events of July 13, 2020.
Prosecutors say store surveillance video shows Mingo shooting an assault-style rifle in a pawn shop parking lot in Tampa. The bullets hit two cars with passengers inside. Bullet casings littered the parking lot, but surprisingly no one was injured.
Prosecutors believe Mingo was targeting his girlfriend because the two had just broken up. She agreed to meet with him to return some items and says she was greeted by bullets.
"He's shooting into the street and I see shooting. Then he turns back in my direction because I’m in the parking lot and I'm stunned. I'm like damn this is really going on this what’s happening," said the woman. Fox 13 is not identifying the woman for her protection.
But Hillsborough Public Defender Melody Jacquay-Acosta says Mingo was simply defending himself after the defendant claimed the ex-girlfriend's brother fired at him first but he denied it.
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"You don't know how a .45 caliber casing ended up in the windshield wiper area of the Nissan Sentra that you were driving?" asked Jacquay-Acosta.
"No," he responded.
Mingo decided not to testify in his defense.
The jury deliberated for three hours and found Mingo guilty on three counts of attempted murder and three counts of firing into a vehicle. He was given a mandatory life sentence.