{"id":235381,"date":"2026-04-17T08:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235381\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:55:07","slug":"former-florida-deputy-faces-upgraded-second-degree-murder-in-shooting-of-colleague-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/235381\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Florida deputy faces upgraded second-degree murder in shooting of colleague"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

Former deputy Andrew Lawson now faces a second-degree murder charge in the 2022 shooting death of his roommate, Deputy Austin Walsh.<\/p>\n

Investigators say he pointed a gun “as a joke,” then cocked and fired it, killing Walsh.<\/p>\n

The case moves toward trial after a rejected plea deal was overturned.<\/p>\n

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A former Brevard County sheriff\u2019s deputy is now facing a second-degree murder charge in the 2022 death of his roommate and fellow deputy, as prosecutors escalate the case following a rejected plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Andrew Lawson is accused of shooting and killing Deputy Austin Walsh, his best friend and roommate, during what authorities describe as a firearm incident inside their shared residence.<\/p>\n

Upgraded charge<\/p>\n

New Developments<\/p>\n

Investigators say Lawson pointed a gun at Walsh “as a joke,” pulled the trigger once but the weapon did not fire, then “cocked it, pulled the trigger again, shooting Walsh in the face.”<\/p>\n

Lawson now faces life in prison following the upgraded charge announced Thursday. The development comes after a judge rejected a plea deal that would have capped Lawson\u2019s sentence at seven years.<\/p>\n

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP<\/a><\/p>\n

“The 7-year cap proposed by the state of Florida is an insult to what took place that night, and that is not justice for our son,” said Cheryl Walsh, the victim\u2019s mother, during earlier court proceedings.<\/p>\n

Legal analysts say prosecutors likely revisited how the evidence was characterized rather than introducing new material.<\/p>\n

Attorney Geoffrey Golub said, “I wouldn’t say any new evidence came. But they reassessed the evidence they had, and they said, you know, we can charge this as a second-degree murder.”<\/p>\n

SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35’S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS<\/a><\/p>\n

Golub also pointed to the sequence of events described by investigators as significant in the charging decision.<\/p>\n

“We’re kidding around, not a great joke here, but he shoots and nothing goes off Well, okay. How do you then take a second shot? I think the joke\u2019s over at this point, if you’re just fooling around. So to me, the second shot would have been planned,” he said.<\/p>\n

If prosecutors and the defense do not reach another agreement, the case is expected to proceed to trial.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

This story was written based on information shared by court proceedings on April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Former deputy Andrew Lawson now faces a second-degree murder charge in the 2022 shooting death of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104920,104919,315,104921,28,30,29,2021,104922,104923],"class_list":{"0":"post-235381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-andrew-lawson","9":"tag-austin-walsh","10":"tag-brevard-county","11":"tag-cheryl-walsh","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-florida-headlines","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-plea-agreement","16":"tag-rejected-plea","17":"tag-second-degree-murder-charge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}