Adam Mitchell Soules was adjudicated guilty and sentenced today to life in prison for Premeditated First Degree Murder. On January 20, 2019, he stabbed a man to death on Fort Myers Beach. Soules was found guilty on December 16, 2022, following a trial in Lee County.
Chief Assistant State Attorney Richard Montecalvo, Assistant State Attorney Sara Miller of the Homicide Unit, and Assistant State Attorney Erin Hughes of the Special Victims Unit, prosecuted the case.
Soules was indicted by the Lee County Grand Jury in February 2019, on one count of Premeditated First Degree Murder.
The Sunday morning of the murder, at 9 a.m., the victim was unlocking and opening the doors of the Fort Myers Beach Library, to get ready for a book sale. The defendant, armed with a machete, approached the victim, attempting to stab him in the face and upper body. The victim tried to defend himself but was stabbed in the lower torso. The victim died in the library lobby.
Soules ran from the scene and eventually made his way onto the rooftop of a nearby abandoned supermarket. A witness to the attack followed the defendant, letting Lee County Sheriff’s Deputies know where he was hiding.
During an interview with detectives, about two hours after the crime, the defendant admitted stabbing and killing the victim and said it was because he did not like him. He also admitted he had been thinking about killing the victim prior to that day. The video of the interview was played during trial for the jury.
Samantha Syoen – Communicatons Director, State Attorney’s Office