Troy Sierra of St. Petersburg was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend in 2007. A jury convicted Sierra of first-degree murder for the shooting death of Kelly Burgess. The trial lasted three days.

In the state of Florida, the prosecution can charge first-degree murder in a number of situations. In this case, it appears that the state proved that Sierra killed Burgess as part of a premeditated design – the most commonly charged and traditional type of first-degree murder. First-degree murder in Florida is punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the Sierra case, the state did not seek the death penalty, therefore the only possible sentence was life imprisonment.

According to prosecutors, Sierra attacked Burgess, who was in the midst of breaking up with him and moving from their shared apartment, on December 28, 2007. He fired three shots, two of which hit Burgess in the head.

Sierra then reportedly fled the scene and was later apprehended at an Orlando gas station where he was passed out and intoxicated.

Under Florida law, “killing with premeditation” is defined as killing after consciously deciding to do so. The premeditated intent to kill must be formed before the killing. The law, however, does not define the exact period of time that must pass between the formation of the intent to kill and the killing itself.

The period of time must only be long enough to allow reflection by the defendant – depending on the circumstances of a particular case, this period of time could be months, days, hours, minutes or even seconds. A jury will decide, based on the evidence presented, whether the intent was formed before the killing.

Felonies, Violent Crimes

This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 4:22 am and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.