A Bay County jury took 42 minutes Tuesday to find a man guilty of bursting into a home, firing a shot at an occupant, and then firing four more at the home as he fled, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Adriane Joseph Melanson, 22, was found guilty as charged of Attempted Felony Murder, Burglary with Discharge of a Firearm, and Shooting into a Building. Circuit Court Judge Tim Register ordered a presentencing investigation and set sentencing for March 15.
Prosecutors Frank Sullivan and Jae Hee Kim presented witnesses and evidence proving that the defendant armed himself and drove to the victim’s residence on April 18, 2020, because he believed the victim had ripped him off.
“I submit to you, there’s no evidence that ever happened,” Sullivan told jurors in his closing statement.
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But, he added, even if jurors believed the defendant’s story that the victim robbed him of an ounce of marijuana earlier that day, it had nothing to do with the shooting that happened later.
“That does not give the defendant the right to administer street justice and go over there and take matters into his own hands,” Sullivan told jurors. “Our society can’t allow it, our justice system doesn’t allow it, and I ask you to find the defendant guilty.”
The State called three witnesses: the victim, and the two men who conducted a key interview of the defendant: Panama City Police Cpl. Kristian Shaw and Det. Cameron Quinn.
The victim testified he was living with extended family, including his 10-year-old nephew and 14-year-old niece. He said he was sleeping on the couch that day when someone knocked. He said his 10-year-old nephew answered the door and the defendant, holding a gun, “rushed into the house and pushed my nephew out of the way and said to come on out of the house.”
The victim said he later learned the defendant believed he had ripped him off, but it was a case of mistaken identity. That day, he didn’t know what was happening, he said, and he rushed Melanson to protect his niece and nephew.
He said they were “tussling,” and, “I pushed him up off me and he shot. He shot the gun at me and then he left out the house.”
That shot put a bullet hole in the TV and left a shell casing on the floor. A home security camera captured video showing the defendant approaching the door, and also showed him fleeing along with the sounds of four shots being fired back toward the house. They struck the door, which the victim had shut, and the front of the house.
Jurors heard a 45-minute taped interview with Detectives Shaw and Quinn, in which the defendant gave numerous versions of the events.
At first he said he was unarmed and the victim had a gun, that it just “went off” while they struggled, and that he ended up with it after it fell to the floor. Confronted with inconsistencies by the officers, he admitted that he arrived with a gun, but did not pull it until the victim grabbed a gun from the couch, and that he ended up with both guns during the struggle.
Having already admitted he only had one gun when he left the home, he could not explain what happened to the second gun.
“Well, that just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Det. Quinn said at one point near the end.
The defendant then apologized “for not being truthful,” and admitted he was the only person with a gun.
Basford thanked the Panama City Police Department for its efforts, and Prosecutors Sullivan and Kim for their presentation of the case.
For additional information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.