A Broward woman who shot and killed a 62-year-old veteran during a dispute over a parking space at a North Lauderdale Wal-Mart will not be charged because she is immune under Florida’s stand-your-ground law, the Broward State Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The woman, Melissa Payne, shot Lauderhill resident Bart Diguglielmo in the abdomen as he approached her in the parking lot of the Walmart in the 7900 block of West McNab Road.
Assistant State Attorney Stephen Zaccor filed a closeout memorandum outlining the state’s decision not to file charges against Payne, concluding that she acted in self-defense and the state’s stand-your-ground law immunizes her from prosecution.
Under the law, Zaccor noted, Payne does not have to prove she is immune from prosecution: “The state has to prove she is not.” In this case, Zaccor concluded, the state could not eliminate self-defense as a motive for the shooting.
The altercation between Diguglielmo, an Army veteran, and Payne unfolded about 12:30 p.m. on June 30. The facts surrounding the shooting are “as tragic as they are absurd,” Zaccor wrote.
Video footage showed Payne and Diguglielmo both exiting their vehicles after trying to park in the same spot. Diguglielmo “inexplicably” abandoned his car, grabbed a shopping cart and entered the store, while Payne parked in the disputed space.
A short time later, Diguglielmo came out of the store and, according to two witnesses, told Payne he was “gonna [expletive] your [expletive] up.” A second witness told police Diguglielmo threatened to “mess her car up.”
Diguglielmo got into his car and drove off, parked in a handicapped spot, then came back to Payne, who was still parked in her vehicle with her niece’s infant daughter. Diguglielmo stayed under a nearby tree, apparently waiting for Payne to come out, according to Zaccor’s memo. After nearly a minute, he started to approach Payne’s car.
Payne got out holding a cellphone in one hand and a gun in the other, warning Diguglielmo she would shoot if he continued to approach her. “Don’t come near my car,” she yelled. “Don’t try that.”
Diguglielmo backed off at first, then continued walking toward Payne.
The standoff continued with Diguglielmo walking toward Payne and apparently threaten to damage her car while Payne backed away and warned him to stop. Finally, as Diguglielmo approached her on the driver’s side of her car, Payne opened fire, placed the gun on the roof of her car, and waited for a deputy to arrive.
From the start, the woman cooperated with deputies and claimed self-defense. 911 calls released just after the shooting shed some light on the shooting.
“The victim’s on the floor,” one caller told a dispatcher. “The subject’s walking around, just talking on the phone right now … They were fighting over a parking spot.”
Zaccor concluded that he would not be able to prove in court that Payne did not act out of a reasonable fear for her life and safety, and therefore she fit the requirements of the stand-your-ground law.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.
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