Florida woman guilty in nightclub shooting that killed 2
May 3, 2022, 1:43 PM | Updated: 2:05 pm
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman was convicted Tuesday for her part in a 2016 Florida nightclub shooting that left two teenagers dead and 14 other people injured.
A Lee County jury found Kierra Kashayla Russ, 24, guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit crime, according to court records. She faces a possible life sentence at a hearing scheduled for June 6.
Russ is the first convicted of five people charged in the July 25, 2016, shooting during an underage swimsuit-themed party at Club Blu in Fort Myers. The deadly shooting followed a yearlong gang war that began at a local high school, police said. Investigators said there was no indication that either of the teens who were killed — 14-year-old Sean Archilles and 18-year-old Stef’an Strawder — were part of either gang.
Still awaiting trial are Demetrius O’Neal, 25; Derrick Leon Church, 25; Tajze Akiir Battle, 27; and Dontrill Loggins, 29.
The shooting drew national media attention in 2016 because it happened five weeks after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead.
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