Florida Woman Cleared in Fatal Walmart Parking Spot Shooting

Broward prosecutors ruled Florida's stand your ground law bars charges against Melissa Payne for fatally shooting an unarmed man in a June parking dispute.

On June 30, Melissa Payne and 62-year-old Bart DiGuglielmo both tried to park in the same space outside the Walmart at 7900 W. McNab Road in North Lauderdale. After a brief stalemate, DiGuglielmo left his SUV in a driving lane and went inside the store; Payne then parked in the space. When he returned roughly 90 seconds later, witnesses said he threatened to damage her car, in which Payne sat with her niece and the niece's infant daughter. DiGuglielmo drove off, then parked two aisles away before walking back toward Payne's vehicle, smoking a cigarette and watching her car. Payne got out with a cellphone in one hand and a gun in the other, repeatedly warning him to stay back before firing a single shot that struck him in the abdomen. He died at Broward Health Medical Center.

The decision is striking because DiGuglielmo was unarmed, and much of the recorded confrontation centered on threats to property rather than to a person. The Guardian reports that Melissa Rodriguez, the attorney for DiGuglielmo's daughter Amanda, said the family is disappointed, arguing that 'damage to property does not constitute a reasonable ground for deadly force.' Yet under Florida law, prosecutors had to disprove Payne's fear of death or great bodily harm by clear and convincing evidence — a burden they concluded they could not meet. The Guardian also notes DiGuglielmo was an army veteran, and that the 2005 law insulates anyone who uses deadly force fearing imminent harm.

Broward State Attorney's Office prosecutors released a 22-page close-out memo alongside surveillance video, cellphone footage recorded by Payne's niece, and body-camera audio. Assistant state attorney Stephen Zaccor wrote that 'the video does not demonstrate that [Payne] was in the right, rather it demonstrates that the State of Florida cannot overcome her claim that she was in reasonable fear of great bodily harm by clear and convincing evidence.' The memo stated that DiGuglielmo continued to 'aggressively approach' Payne even as she held the gun, and that she backed away between parked cars as he followed. Witnesses told investigators he was visibly angry and shaking, and Payne's husband, on the phone during the encounter, heard her warn someone to back away before the gunshot.

Florida's stand your ground law, enacted in 2005, removes any duty to retreat for a person not engaged in criminal activity who is in a place they have a right to be, when they reasonably believe deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm. A 2017 legislative amendment, reported by The Guardian, shifted the burden to the state to prove by clear and convincing evidence that a use of force was not justified. Zaccor's memo emphasized that Payne 'did not have to wait to be attacked before resorting to deadly force' and 'did not have to retreat as long as her fear was reasonable and no evidence has been presented to disprove that.'

The outcome leaves DiGuglielmo's family without a criminal path to accountability through prosecution. According to NBC 6 South Florida, Rodriguez said DiGuglielmo's daughter Amanda 'has been heartbroken by this,' her children now without a grandfather, and argued the shooting was not a situation in which deadly force was reasonable. The case is likely to renew debate over how Florida's burden-shifting framework treats unarmed confrontations where recorded threats reference property damage.

No criminal charges will be filed, and prosecutors say stand your ground immunity applies to Payne's actions. The medical examiner ruled DiGuglielmo's death a homicide caused by a gunshot wound, but that finding does not trigger prosecution under the immunity ruling. Any civil action by the family would proceed under a separate legal framework not addressed in the prosecutors' memo.