A four-day trial ended Friday when a jury found an Arizona man guilty of strangling his friend in their hotel room during a 2021 trip to Panama City Beach, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Scottie Jay Black, 43, of Tonalea, Ariz., was found guilty as charged of Second-Degree Murder in the Oct. 3, 2021 death of Tyrell James Sagg, 41, of Rock Point, Ariz. Both areas are part of the Navajo Nation, where Black was ultimately picked up for questioning.
The case began Oct. 3, 2021, when the defendant and the victim’s girlfriend reported finding him dead on the floor of their Panama City Beach hotel room. The three were here for vacation. There were no visible injuries on the victim.
An autopsy later showed the victim had internal injuries consistent with being strangled. Further investigation showed the defendant and the woman later withdrew money using the victim’s ATM card, and returned to Arizona. Other evidence showed no one else entered or left the room during the time the victim was killed.
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At trial, Prosecutors Peter Overstreet and Nadia DeAbreu called 12 witnesses. They included a Navajo Nation Police Department investigator who helped locate the suspect, and two Panama City Beach Police Department investigators who flew to Arizona to interview Black. That 5-hour interview, during which the defendant’s story changed multiple times, was played in full for jurors.
“Mr. Black thought he had done a good job of covering up his crime,” Overstreet said. “However, the testimony of the Medical Examiner (Jay Radtke) and the extremely thorough investigation of the Panama City Beach Police Department’s criminal investigators led to the jury seeing the truth of what occurred that fateful night in the hotel room.”
The jury deliberated for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Basford thanked the Panama City Beach Police Department, the Medical Examiner’s Office, and the Navajo Nation police for their work on the case that stretched across the country.
For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.