{"id":436070,"date":"2026-10-23T17:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T17:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436070\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T17:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T17:50:07","slug":"tallahassee-man-facing-eviction-gets-life-sentence-for-shooting-leasing-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436070\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallahassee man facing eviction gets life sentence for shooting leasing manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee man facing eviction was sentenced to life in prison this week for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2022\/10\/04\/shots-fired-broad-daylight-woman-seriously-injured\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2022\/10\/04\/shots-fired-broad-daylight-woman-seriously-injured\/\">shooting the leasing manager<\/a> at his apartment complex.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ernest Lawson, 37, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/04\/20\/tallahassee-man-found-guilty-attempted-murder-after-shooting-apartment-complex-manager\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/04\/20\/tallahassee-man-found-guilty-attempted-murder-after-shooting-apartment-complex-manager\/\">found guilty<\/a> of attempted murder earlier this year in the Oct. 2022 shooting at the Blue Cascade Apartments on Putnam Drive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lawson was accused of lying in wait for the leasing manager to arrive and then shooting her as she got out of her car. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Amber Keeler survived but is paralyzed as a result of the shooting, prosecutor Adrian Mood said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt has impacted her life and her quality of life dramatically,\u201d Mood said. \u201cThis is a truly tragic case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text text-center\">More on crime in our area:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lawson was two months behind on his rent and facing eviction at the time of the shooting, court records show. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Arrest papers say Lawson told Tallahassee Police officers he had purchased the gun one week earlier and wanted to intimidate the leasing officer so she would reduce the late fees he had accrued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lawson told police he unintentionally pulled the trigger, but a jury found him guilty of attempted second-degree murder in April 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Keeler and several family members testified at Tuesday\u2019s sentencing hearing and prosecutors say Lawson turned and apologized to her before he was sent to prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WCTV has reached out to Lawson\u2019s attorney for comment. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/10\/23\/tallahassee-man-facing-eviction-gets-life-sentence-shooting-leasing-manager\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee man facing eviction was sentenced to life in prison this week for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[170766,106063,170762,634,115,170764,170767,170765,170763,232,234,233,5698],"class_list":["post-436070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-amber-keeler","tag-blue-cascade-apartments","tag-ernest-lawson","tag-local","tag-news","tag-oct-2022","tag-prosecutor-adrian-mood","tag-putnam-drive","tag-shooting-leasing-manager","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-tallahassee-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436070","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=436070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}