A Tampa judge has dismissed the case against a man who fatally shot a Tampa DJ in Ybor City last year, finding that prosecutors failed to prove that he should not be granted immunity under Florida’s stand your ground law.
Joel Moreno-Cobo, 33, was charged with second-degree murder in the Nov. 14 shooting of 41-year-old Dedrick Sykes, who performed in local clubs as DJ ShyGuy, in what was described as a dispute that erupted during a traffic jam. Attorneys for the man accused in his death argued that Moreno-Cobo shot Sykes in self-defense.
In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Lyann Goudie wrote that Sykes was the “initial aggressor” during the encounter, and prosecutors “failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence” that Moreno-Cobo “was not reasonable in his belief that the force he used was necessary in order to defend himself.”
“Any reasonable, objective person would fear that Mr. Sykes was going to commit a forcible felony on him and/or his passengers,” Goudie wrote in the 11-page ruling. “Additionally, if Mr. Sykes reached into the car to batter Mr. Moreno-Cobo he would have committed a burglary of a conveyance with an assault or battery, a first-degree felony punishable by life in prison.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez said, “While we understand the court’s decision, we respectfully disagree with the outcome.”
“We will continue to advocate for accountability when the evidence supports criminal charges,” the statement said. “Above all, our hearts remain with the victim’s family and loved ones who have experienced a devastating loss.”
Moreno-Cobo’s attorney, Jorge Chalela, declined to comment on the ruling.
Stand your ground, which has stoked controversy since its creation in 2005, removed the duty to retreat from traditional self-defense law, declaring that a person can use deadly force if they reasonably believe they are in danger of death or bodily harm.
It falls to state prosecutors to disprove such arguments.
Moreno-Cobo’s defense attorneys argued that he feared that Sykes was about to attack him when they crossed paths that evening at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street.
Dedrick “ShyGuy” Sykes, a Tampa Bay area DJ, is seen in a screenshot of a public post on his Facebook page.
Sykes’ girlfriend, Kourtney Berry, was riding with himin a Jeep Grand Cherokee and testified at length during the Aug. 6 stand your ground hearing.
Berry had aclose view of what happened the night her boyfriend was killed. But on the witness stand, she couldn’t remember what was said that sparked the argument before the shooting. She wasn’t able to see the moment Sykes was shot.
Later, distraught among his family members at a hospital, she remembered uttering something like, “I wish I could have calmed him down.”
She described the minutes before and after Sykes was killed.
An appearance at an Ybor City restaurant at 7:30 p.m. preceded a second at the Taiga lounge in Brandon. Sykes had to drop off microphones and sound equipment at both locations.
It was dark out shortly before 7 p.m. as Sykes and Berry drove west from Brandon and coasted off the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway onto North 22nd Street. As they headed north into Ybor City, they hit a traffic jam.
In the passenger seat, Berry scrolled through her phone as Sykes steered the Jeep through the crawl of Friday-night motorists along the narrow one-way road.
As they approached the intersection of Fifth Street, Berry remembered hearing car horns. She saw one car stopped at the intersection, facing east at a stop sign, flashing its lights at other drivers as it inched out into traffic.
From the left lane, Sykes turned the Jeep left, in front of the other car, a BMW.
“I heard shouting from the vehicle,” Berry said. “But I couldn’t make out what was said.”
She saw Sykes roll down his window. She heard him say something. His voice was raised, but she couldn’t remember his words. She recalled seeing the other driver’s arm outside the BMW’s window.
Did Sykes call the other driver a “bitch,” Assistant State Attorney Amanda Ojeda asked?
“No,” Berry said.
Sykes suddenly stopped the Jeep beside the BMW, she said. Sykes took off his seat belt, opened the driver’s door and stepped out. Berry got out, too.
“I was hoping to negate whatever was happening,” she said.
Seconds later, as she stepped around the front of the Jeep, she heard two gunshots. She saw Sykes on the ground, blood spilling from wounds to his chest and stomach.
Sykes lay face down on the brick crosswalkas Moreno-Cobo got out of the BMW. He asked Berry if he could help him.
“I told him no,” she said. “And that I was calling 911.”
Bystanders took off Sykes’ T-shirt and used his girlfriend’s blazer and medical supplies to put pressure on the wounds. A woman asked if he was still conscious. She asked him to squeeze her hand.
An ambulance took Sykes to Tampa General Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Berry said she never saw Sykes do anything physically aggressive toward anyone in the BMW. He was not armed at the time of the encounter.
Moreno-Cobo, who was being held in county jail at the time of hearing, took the witness stand to givehis own his own account of what happened that night.
He’d gone out with his girlfriend and his 9-year-old daughter to get chicken wings at Hattricks downtown, he said. On the way back, he wanted to show his daughter an apartment where he planned to move. He drove his girlfriend’s BMW while she sat in the passenger seat and his daughter in the back.
He came to a wall of cars at Fifth and 22nd. Wanting to continue straight across, he had to wait for a break in traffic. When one came, he flashed his headlights at a woman in an SUV, motioning for her to move up. As she did, Sykes turned in front of him.
Moreno-Cobo braked. Through the BMW’s open driver’s side window, he said he heard Sykes yell, “You’re going to sit there and wait, bitch.”
Moreno-Cobo responded with an expletive. He said Sykes stopped and replied, “Well get out of the car then, bitch.” He saw Sykes start to get out of the Jeep.
“It looked like he was kind of lunging,” Moreno Cobo said. “I got scared and I just grabbed my firearm.”
He recounted in detail how he slid the weapon out of its holster, how he saw Sykes standing at the window, how angry he looked. He said he feared for his daughter and his girlfriend.
“I feel like a million thoughts just jumped in all at once,” he testified. “I just wanted to make sure we were all safe.”
He fired one shot and saw no reaction. So he fired again.
He turned and asked his girlfriend and daughter if they were OK. The girl was crying.
“I’m sorry,” he said he told them. “I had to do it.”
In her ruling, Goudie noted that Berry stated she couldn’t say if Sykes spoke in an angry tone during the exchange of words before the shooting “despite having been his girlfriend for four years.”
Berry also acknowledged during the hearing that she told defense attorneys during a deposition in July “that Mr. Sykes was ‘mad’ and that he was ‘triggered’ or ‘angered’ enough that he stopped the car and got out,” Goudie wrote.
Goudie pointed to how quickly the encounter unfolded — surveillance video showed the time between Sykes turning onto Fifth Avenue and then getting shot was approximately four seconds — and how close the Jeep and BMW were at the time of the shooting.
Goudie wrote that she found Moreno-Cobo’s testimony credible “based on his responses, body language, and demeanor” and that “nothing presented by the State refuted it.”
“While the law no longer imposes a duty to retreat in circumstances such as this,” the judge continued, “Mr. Moreno-Cobo could not have retreated because of the heavy traffic. This event did not happen in slow motion. It happened in real time. Mr. Moreno-Cobo had mere seconds to react to the threat of harm that Mr. Sykes posed.”
Times staff writer Dan Sullivan contributed to this report.