MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A jury found a Miami Gardens man who confessed to being a lookout before the 2021 El Mula mass shooting guilty of 23 charges on Friday night in Miami-Dade County.
Jurors found Davonte Barnes, known as “Dey Dey,” guilty of three counts of second-degree murder and 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder and not guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
“I think they got it just right given his role in the case,” Assistant State Attorney Christoper Flanagan said in reaction to the verdict.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez discharged the jurors at about 8:45 p.m., and she set Barnes’s sentencing hearing for 11:30 a.m., on Nov. 3. He faces the possibility of life in prison without parole. Tinkler Mendez announced a death penalty waiver before the trial started.
“We will continue to fight. I am sure Davonte will want to appeal,” said Attorney Robert Barrar, a former prosecutor who defended Barnes.
Barnes, 24, submitted his fingerprints after the verdict and returned to detention. He confessed to being a lookout while driving his mother’s car just before shooters killed Shaniqua Peterson, Desmond Owens, and Clayton Dillard III and injured 20 at about 12:30 a.m., May 30, 2021, at the banquet hall at 7630 NW 186 St.
Assistant State Attorney Kioceaia Stenson and Barrar delivered opening statements on Sept. 21. Barrar said Barnes’s confession was the result of detectives’ pressure. Stenson said the evidence was going to show Barnes’s role as “the eyes” of the operation.
“They had a target, they had a plan, and they executed it,” Stenson said.
During the testimony of Detective Alexandra Turnes, Flanagan played a video of Barnes’s interrogation on Sept. 23, 2021. The interrogation involved Turnes and Detective Richard Raphael, who was not among the prosecution’s 20 witnesses during Barnes’s trial.
Barnes told detectives a long-standing feud between two groups in Miami Gardens and Opa-locka, and the groups’ rappers Alan “Savage” Chambers and Antonio “Foe Pack” Jones, were to blame for the shooting. Chambers targeted Jones, who was injured and survived, police said.
The jury also saw Sgt. Sergio Cremisini on Thursday presented slides of a timeline including the correlations that detectives identified while analyzing suspects’ cell phone data, the vehicles’ GPS trackers, surveillance videos, and other evidence.
Flanagan and Barrar delivered their closing statements before the jury started deliberating at about 3:40 p.m., on Friday. Barrar asked the jurors to not convict Barnes because of the people he is friends with or for being at the strip mall where the shooting happened.
“He knew the target, he knew the plan, and he helped them execute it,” Flanagan said during his closing statement.
Detectives identified nine weapons, including one in defense. They also identified the silver Nissan Barnes was in, and the three vehicles the shooters were in as a black Nissan Altima, a white Nissan Path Finder, and a black Cadillac XT5.
Detectives had a surveillance video of Barnes cleaning the Nissan Path Finder days before the shooting. Flanagan told the jury that premeditation was required to find Barnes guilty of first-degree murder, and the text messages and his confession established that.
“There was bad blood between the Bricks and the Blues ... but that doesn’t mean that Davonte had a conscious intent to have El Mula shot up, or to even have Foe Pack shot,” Barrar said during his closing statement.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released a statement Saturday regarding the jury’s verdict, which you can read here:
As the investigation into the shooting continued on Friday, detectives were asking anyone with information to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
Watch the verdict reading
Watch a video of the defense’s closing argument
Watch videos of the prosecution’s response
Watch the prosecution’s closing argument
Watch Friday’s reports
Watch the 12 p.m. report
Watch the 3:30 p.m. report
Watch the 5:30 p.m. report
Watch the 11 p.m. report
Coverage of the trial
Local10.com archives: Related stories
- May 23, 2021: 2 separate drive-by shootings kill 2, injure 3
- May 30, 2021: Total of 23 people shot, 2 killed outside banquet hall
- June 1, 2021: Families wait for updates at 4 hospitals
- June 2, 2021: Board chair blames mass shooting on public servants
- June 22, 2021: New surveillance video brings new questions
- Sept. 24, 2021: Man arrested in connection with mass shooting
- Oct. 6, 2021: Suspect, age 20, accused of shooting
- Dec. 15, 2021: Charges dropped against suspect
- May 30, 2022: Parents of victims still seeking justice
- June 29, 2023: Family ‘thankful’ after suspect charged