Although a murder charge levied against an Orlando woman for a fatal road rage incident has been dropped a month after Attorney General James Uthmeier insisted she acted in self-defense, she\u2019s still headed to prison, a court ruled Thursday.<\/p>\n
An Orange County judge Thursday morning agreed to drop Tina Allgeo\u2019s second-degree murder charge after the 47-year-old took a plea deal, pleading no contest to aggravated battery. Allgeo was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by 10 years of probation.<\/p>\n
The local case took on a statewide angle when Uthmeier in September publicly bashed Orlando\u2019s Democratic State Attorney, Monique Worrell, \u00a0for pursuing a murder charge against Allgeo, whom Uthmeier believed acted in self-defense under Florida\u2019s Stand Your Ground law. Although Allgeo initially claimed a defense under Stand Your Ground, on Thursday she changed course.<\/p>\n
Still, Uthmeier celebrated the dropped murder charge on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re glad to see that Orlando State Attorney Worrell took our advice and dropped the unjust murder charge against Tina Allgeo this morning. Ms. Allgeo clearly acted in self-defense,\u201d Uthmeier posted. \u201cIn Florida, we will protect the right to stand your ground against violent aggressors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Allgeo case served as another chapter in the deepening feud between Uthmeier and Worrell, who first clashed through Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023. When Uthmeier served as the governor\u2019s chief of staff, Worrell was suspended for\u00a0allegedly neglecting<\/a>\u00a0\u201cher duty to faithfully prosecute crime in her jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite this, Worrell\u00a0won<\/a>\u00a0her seat back in November 2024, unseating the attorney DeSantis had appointed to replace her.<\/p>\n Most recently, Uthmeier last month accused Worrell of refusing to\u00a0prosecute pedophiles<\/a>. In April,\u00a0he said she was slow-walking and ignoring a mounting backlog of cases.<\/p>\n Worrell has denied all wrongdoing, accusing Uthmeier in turn of incompetence.<\/p>\n What happened?<\/p>\n The Orange County Grand Jury indicted Allgeo in February for the second-degree murder with a firearm of 42-year-old Mihail Tsvetkov. Surveillance footage shows Allgeo outside of her car, taking photos of Tsvetkov\u2019s plates. When Tsvetkov drove away, she pursued him and struck his car with hers, the Phoenix\u00a0previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n A red light camera video then follows Tsvetkov as he exits his car, yanks open Allgeo\u2019s car door, and begins to beat her, seemingly attempting to pull her out of her vehicle. Allgeo then pulls the trigger on her firearm, shooting Tsvetkov \u201cin the face\u201d and killing him almost instantly.<\/p>\n Uthmeier said Allgeo acted under the state\u2019s Stand Your Ground law, which was passed in 2005. The law allows Floridians to use deadly force in self-defense as long as they are not engaged in criminal activity.<\/p>\n Worrell disagreed. During her quarterly meeting, she said, \u201cThe Attorney General has political motivations to try to label me as an anti-Second Amendment person; that is not the case,\u201d ClickOrlando\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n She added that Stand Your Ground still has limitations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat those limitations include is one, if you\u2019re the aggressor, you now have a duty to retreat, and two, if you are in the commission of a crime, you have the duty to retreat,\u201d Worrell said.<\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a>\u00a0is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions:\u00a0info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>. Follow Florida Phoenix on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n