MARIANNA – A jury took just over two hours Friday to find Steven A. Mantecon guilty as charged of Second Degree Murder and a dozen counts of shooting at witnesses or into their vehicles in the Aug. 8, 2020, homicide of Blake Allen Cain at a public park, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Altogether, the jury found the defendant, now 23, guilty of Second Degree Murder with a Firearm, two counts of Shooting into an Occupied Vehicle, and 10 counts of Aggravated Assault with a Firearm. Circuit Court Judge Ana Maria Garcia set sentencing for April 5.
Lead Prosecutor Shalla Jefcoat discounted the defendant’s claim that he fired 14 rounds from a semi-automatic AK-47 type rifle in self-defense that night at Thomas Porter Park in Grand Ridge. A group had gathered there in anticipation of a fistfight between the defendant and Cain over a dispute between the two families involving a ring.
Jefcoat and second-chair Lawrence Gill presented testimony and evidence that the defendant showed up at the park, exchanged words with Cain, but left without getting out of his truck. He returned about 15 minutes later, stayed in his truck while arguing with Cain, then opened fire on Cain from about 50 feet away. The evidence showed Cain was unarmed and three shots hit him – including two in the back – while the other 11 bullets hit the other victims’ vehicles.
“The fact of the matter is you heard from 12 eyewitnesses, and yes, they varied, but not a single one of them testified to anything that would’ve provided any justification whatsoever for Steven Mantecon’s actions,” Jefcoat told jurors in her closing statement. “Remember, he is the one with the most to lose today, the only with anything to lose today, really, and he has told you something that is impossible” during his testimony.
RELATED NEWS: Woman guilty of shooting two from behind
RELATED NEWS: Sexually Violent Predator committed under Jimmy Ryce Act
“Because the fact of the matter is that this defendant, even when I suggested they had called him a wuss or worse … he did not like having his manhood questioned for not getting out and meeting Blake Cain fist-to-fist,” Jefcoat continued. “I’m not saying he should have, but his manhood and pride being wounded, or his sister being insulted, does not justify his actions on the night of Aug. 8.
“He killed a man and he was covering up by attempting to kill witnesses.”
The State called 20 witnesses during the three-day trial. The majority of them, many of them victims of the aggravated assaults, were in their teens at the time of the shooting.
Everyone agreed there had been an ongoing dispute over a ring Cain had given to his former girlfriend – the defendant’s sister.
It came to a head Aug. 8, 2020, as the argument escalated across Snapchat, a social media app, between those involved, according to testimony. Mantecon testified he wasn’t involved in the argument until that day, when he became upset because he claimed the victim was harassing his sister and mother.
Witnesses and the defendant agreed in their testimony that Mantecon and Cain had agreed to a fistfight that night at 9 p.m. at Porter Park and a number of people had gathered. Witnesses also agreed that Cain was known to carry a pistol, and Mantecon testified he kept his assault-style rifle behind the front seats of his truck.
And everyone agreed that the defendant showed up at the park, left, and returned a short time later before he started shooting.
The defendant testified Cain was at his own truck and walked to the front of it, threw his hands into the air with a pistol in his right hand, and then pointed it at him while saying he was going to shoot him. He said he was still sitting in his truck and grabbed his rifle from behind his seat and fired in self-defense.
But all the State’s witnesses who saw the encounter said Cain was unarmed; those who saw Cain’s pistol said he had put it on the back of his truck’s tool box before walking to the front of his truck. One testified Cain put his hands in the air to show he was unarmed before the defendant began firing. The pistol was recovered from the back of the truck’s toolbox.
The defendant testified he was shooting as fast as he could, not aiming at anything or anyone other than Cain, to save his own life, and that he stopped when Cain fell.
It was one of many statements by the defendant that Jefcoat questioned on her cross-examination.
“So you’re just an amazingly lucky shot to kill Blake Cain and hit every vehicle where people were or where you would expect them to be?” Jefcoat asked the defendant, noting that there were 14 shell casings recovered and 14 bullets hit either Cain or vehicles.
Jurors were presented with a large amount of evidence and testimony, and before they were sent to deliberate Jefcoat summed up the testimony from the young witnesses, saying they were recounting a traumatic experience for which they had no training or life experience.
“It’s like these are little pieces of a puzzle, and when you’re putting together a case like this, every witness has a little piece of the puzzle,” Jefcoat told jurors. “And you never get 100 percent of the picture, but you can tell what your picture’s going to be, you can fill in the gaps, you can see what it is.
“But what the defendant is saying is from a whole other puzzle, it just doesn’t fit.”
Basford thanked the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and its deputies and investigators for the tremendous amount of work they put into the case, taking over a dozen statements that night and teaming with the Florida Highway Patrol to serve a search warrant on the defendant’s home, where they recovered the rifle.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.