{"id":88937,"date":"2025-12-19T05:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/88937\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T05:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:22:12","slug":"port-st-lucie-fathers-killer-sentenced-to-life-after-unanimous-jury-verdict-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/88937\/","title":{"rendered":"Port St. Lucie father\u2019s killer sentenced to life after unanimous jury verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEE COUNTY, Fla (CBS12) \u2014 A unanimous jury has convicted a man of firstdegree murder and robbery with a firearm in the 2024 killing of a Port St. Lucie father at a Leesburg convenience store. <\/p>\n

The trial began earlier this week and concluded Wednesday after nearly three hours of deliberation, with Judge Brian Welke sentencing Alex Lopez<\/a>, 26, to life in prison without parole.<\/p>\n

On May 30, 2024, Raied “Ray” Shihadeh was shot while on a FaceTime call with his wife during a robbery at the M & M Food Mart. Officers found him behind the counter with gunshot wounds to the abdomen and head. Surveillance footage showed a masked gunman brandishing a firearm, then taking less than $100 and a vape product before fleeing.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, a witness told police she entered the store and heard screaming from a cell phone, later determined to be Shihadeh\u2019s call with his wife.<\/p>\n

Detectives released suspect photos in a public bulletin, and tips quickly identified Lopez. He was arrested on June 26, 2024, at a motel in Kissimmee.<\/p>\n

State Attorney Bill Gladson<\/a> called Lopez a \u201cruthless, wannabe thug\u201d who valued money over life.<\/p>\n

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘He took a good person:’ Port St. Lucie family of slain store owner pleads for justice<\/a><\/p>\n

Shihadeh\u2019s widow, Monique, delivered an emotional statement: \u201cWhen someone walked in, they changed the trajectory of our lives not only for myself but for my children. I promise you today\u2019s verdict was not a miscarriage of justice; it was the perfect carriage of justice.\u201d She added that while the pain remains, the verdict brings her family some relief after the \u201cgut-wrenching\u201d uncertainty of that night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla (CBS12) \u2014 A unanimous jury has convicted a man of firstdegree murder and robbery with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[46320,3985,3361,1933,171,173,172,47564,14040,1934],"class_list":{"0":"post-88937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-alex-lopez","9":"tag-justice","10":"tag-life-sentence","11":"tag-murder","12":"tag-port-st-lucie","13":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","14":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","15":"tag-raied-shihadeh","16":"tag-robbery","17":"tag-trial"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88937","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=88937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}