This afternoon, Shyheem Anthony Taylor was sentenced to life in prison for Second-Degree Felony Murder, plus 25 years in prison for Attempted Robbery- Discharging a Firearm and
25 years for Aggravated Battery Causing Great Bodily Harm. The sentences will run concurrently. The crimes were committed during a home invasion in Lee County on August 20, 2019.
On that day, at 9:28 p.m., the Fort Myers Police Department received an alert that gunshots had been fired on French Street. Three armed and masked men knocked on the front door of a home and barged in.
One of them pointed a gun at the head of a woman holding her two-year-old child and asked about a safe. The mother and her child ran and hid in a nearby playroom. Another of the armed men, the defendant, Taylor, went further into the house, passing another woman, with her two children, a two-year-old and two-month-old. She grabbed her oldest and hid the child in a playroom, joining the other victims.
Taylor continued toward the master bedroom where the safe was located. The children’s grandmother had been asleep with her grandson in a nearby bedroom. She awoke, opened the door, and Taylor pointed a gun at her. She slammed the door and hid.
During that time, the homeowner was able to grab his own firearm, and shot one of the armed men, killing him. The defendant then opened fire in the back of the house, shooting the homeowner and the mother who had been with her kids in the bedroom. They survived.
Taylor fired a total of 16 shots and then ran out of the house. As he fled, he threw his gun in the grass nearby. Taylor’s DNA was located on the weapon and the cartridge casings matched the spent casings in the back bedroom. The Fort Myers Police Department located Taylor and arrested him for the crime.
Assistant State Attorney Mara Marzano, of the Homicide Unit, and Assistant State Attorney Michael Curley, of the Special Victims Unit, prosecuted the case.
Samantha Syoen- Communications Director, State Attorney’s Office