By Molly Moorhead, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, October 14, 2010
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NEW PORT RICHEY — A 19-year-old man who was left partly paralyzed after a Shady Hills robbery and shootout in 2008 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Thursday.
Prosecutors had agreed to a 10-year prison sentence for Taequan Griffin of Brooksville after he testified in the murder trial last month of another suspect in the case.
Prosecutors said Griffin and two other men drove to the Oxenham Avenue home of Kenneth Evans, a known drug dealer, in the predawn hours of Oct. 16, 2008. Griffin, Calvin Washington and his cousin, Ricky Washington, intended to steal drugs and money, prosecutors said.
They climbed in through a bathroom window, dogs started barking and the people inside woke up. A shootout ensued.
Corey Evans, 21, Kenneth Evans' cousin who was staying the night to play video games, died from a bullet to the head.
Kenneth Evans, who fired back with his own gun, was also shot and received minor injuries.
Prosecutors never said definitively who fired the gun that killed Corey Evans. But to get a murder conviction, they needed only to prove that the three men went there to commit a felony.
Calvin Washington, 21, was convicted last month of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Ricky Washington, 20, previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received 30 years in prison.
That night, when the gunfire subsided and Griffin lay on the floor bleeding, the Washingtons dragged him back out the bathroom window, drove him to a hospital in Spring Hill and dropped him off outside the ER.
He now uses a wheelchair.
Circuit Judge Michael Andrews told Griffin at Thursday's plea that he'll still be a young man — just 29 — when he gets out of prison.
"I sincerely hope that you will change your life … that you will not be someone who visits this courtroom again," the judge told him.
Molly Moorhead can be reached at moorhead@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6245.
