17-Year-Old Gets 20-Year Sentence In Youth's Slaying

BARTOW | A teenager was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting a 16-year-old Bartow boy whom he mistook for a member of a rival gang.

As part of a plea deal, Johnathan Benjamin Homesley, 17, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. He was originally charged with first-degree murder.

During the hearing, Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter said 20 years in prison is a long time for a 17-year-old.

"I wish I could take him around to the juvenile detention facility so he could tell some of the folks out there what happens when you make one stupid decision," Hunter said.

Armando Cortez, a Lake Region High School student, was gunned down just days before Christmas.

Assistant State Attorney Hardy Pickard described how Cortez, who didn't belong to any gang, became the victim of mistaken identity.

Cortez was preparing to attend a friend's birthday party on Dec. 23 at Carver Recreation Center in Bartow.

"A lot of people showed for the festivities there, including a couple of apparently rival Hispanic gangs," Pickard said.

Investigative reports state a witness said that during a performance of a rap song one gang member referred to his gang, West Side, and flashed his gang's colors and hand signs.

The other gang, the Nortenos, felt disrespected, and the rival gangs began to confront each other, reports state.

Off-duty Bartow police officers acting as security threw out some people, reports state.

About that time, Cortez was preparing to park his Ford Expedition at a nearby lot of Union Academy Magnet School, reports state.

Cortez's cousins were already in the parking lot and were getting ready to leave when something struck their truck, and they saw the ejected gang members with baseball bats coming toward them, reports state.

The cousins drove away and were leaving the parking lot just as Cortez was pulling in, reports state. They were telling Cortez that someone hit their truck when the gang members approached.

The gang members began hitting their vehicles with the bats and demanding to know if they were members of the West Side gang, reports state.

Cortez and his cousins said they were not part of any gang, but the confrontation continued, reports state.

They struck Cortez through the driver's window, and Cortez managed to get out of the vehicle, reports state.

The gang members kept hitting Cortez with the bats, and Homesley got a revolver and shot him, reports state.

Pickard said Cortez was shot four times - one bullet went through the right side of his mouth and into his right shoulder, a second struck his upper chest, a third hit his lower abdomen and a fourth struck his left leg.

Homesley told detectives that he didn't mean to kill the boy, reports state.

He told detectives he heard a window get smashed during the confrontation and thought some "West Siders" had a gun so he fired five times in the air, reports state.

Chip Thullbery, a spokesman with the State Attorney's Office, said plea negotiations went forward with Homesley because of the difficulties in proving premeditation.

[ Jason Geary can be reached at jason.geary@theledger.com or 863-802-7536. ]