A woman found guilty of shooting her boyfriend in the upper thigh with a high-powered rifle and then telling him to take responsibility has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Misti Nunery, 41, of Panama City Beach, was found guilty Friday of Felony Battery and being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm. Circuit Court Judge Ana Maria Garcia sentenced Nunery to 15 years on the firearms charge and 5 years on the Felony Battery charge and ordered the sentences run consecutively, or one after the other. Nunery was released from prison in 2022 on a drug trafficking conviction.
In this case, the defendant shot the victim as he was walking away from an argument in their bedroom. She then called 911 and asked for an ambulance, saying she had just arrived home and found the victim laying on the floor already shot.
“This was a high-powered rifle and easily could have killed the victim,” Prosecutor Morgan McAfee said. “The defendant showed a total disregard for the victim and his well-being, lied to investigators about what happened, and tried to make the victim say he had shot himself.
“We are glad the jury saw the truth in the evidence and that the victim saw some measure of justice.”
McAfee, along with Prosecutor Morgan Morrell, called 7 witnesses including the victim, to prove it was Nunery who shot the victim.
The testimony and evidence showed the defendant and victim were living together when they went out Sept. 25, 2022. The victim said they returned home and his girlfriend became verbally abusive and argumentative to the point that he went back out by himself.
He returned home later that evening and found that someone had knocked over his motorcycle, which he had built himself. He said another argument ensued in the bedroom because he believed his girlfriend was involved in damaging the motorcycle.
The victim said he had gotten his rifle out, thinking there might be someone on his property. He said the defendant continued to yell at him so he started to leave the room. When he turned, he saw her pointing the rifle at him. He said she fired a shot without saying a word, knocking him to the ground, and then fired a second shot that missed.
He said she pushed the rifle across the floor toward him and told him, “You shot yourself.”
The victim was losing consciousness as the first Bay County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived and applied a tourniquet. The defendant, who on the 911 call said she came home to find the victim already shot, changed that and said she was home in bed when she heard a shot and saw her boyfriend on the floor.
Basford thanked the BCSO for its investigation and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.