Tampa Man Charged with Second-Degree Murder

Leon Stevenson, Jr., of Tampa was charged this week with second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office says that Stevenson got into an argument with girlfriend Nakysha Hamilton over money at about 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

According to reports, Stevenson grabbed Hamilton by the neck and threw her to the floor of their Tampa apartment. He allegedly slapped her several times and choked her.

He reportedly noticed she was having trouble breathing, so he helped her to the shower. After she was finished in the shower, Stevenson helped Hamilton to bed, according to the sheriff’s office.

Reports indicate that Stevenson woke up several hours later and found Hamilton gasping for air. Authorities say Stevenson then drove Hamilton to his mother’s house. When he arrived, Hamilton was unresponsive and Stevenson’s mother began to perform CPR.

Stevenson’s mother called the sheriff’s office shortly thereafter. Hillsborough County Fire Rescue responded and pronounced Hamilton dead.

The sheriff’s office reports that the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy, finding the cause of death to be blunt impact to the head and ruling it a homicide.

Under Florida law, a person is guilty of first-degree murder if he kills someone with the premeditated design to effect that person’s death OR in the perpetration of such crimes as drug trafficking or any of a variety of violent felonies. A first-degree murder conviction carries a possible life sentence or even the death penalty.

In this case, Mr. Stevenson has been charged with second-degree murder.

A person is guilty of second-degree murder in Florida if he kills someone “by any act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual”. A conviction carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

A “premeditated design to kill” means that there was a conscious decision to kill. The decision must be present in the accused’s mind at the time the act was committed but doesn’t necessarily require a long thought-process or planning period.

In this case, it appears that prosecutors did not believe there was evidence of such premeditation and chose to forego the first-degree murder charge.