A 6-person jury took about 20 minutes Tuesday to find Jermel Cromartie guilty as charged of Attempted First Degree Murder for firing 12 shots at a man in 2019, striking him 8 times and putting him into a coma, State Attorney Larry Basford announced.
Jermel Cromartie, 33, was also found guilty of Tampering with a Victim for later contacting the man he shot and attempting to bribe him to change his story about who shot him. The intercepted call was played for jurors.
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Prosecutor Frank Sullivan told the court that the act was particularly violent and the defendant remained a threat to the community. He requested enhanced penalties under Florida’s 10-20-Life law – two consecutive Life sentences. Circuit Court Judge Brantley Clark agreed.
Sullivan called witnesses and presented evidence gathered in the Bay County Sheriff’s Office investigation into the June 15, 2019, shooting. It proved the defendant shot at the victim 12 times – hitting him 8 to 9 times – while the two were a short distance away from the defendant’s Byrd Drive home in Callaway. The defendant ran home while the victim managed to crawl through a ditch and up beside the road, where passersby found him bleeding and crying for help.
“Angel Santos, with 9 holes in him as he crawled inch-by-inch through the sand and the ditch, was waiting for anybody to save his life,” Sullivan told jurors. “He thought it was over for him. If not for the people who stopped and got help, Angel Santos would be dead today.”
Motorists stopped to help, called 911 and comforted him. They said he was sure he was dying, and told them who shot him. He fell into a coma and had multiple surgeries before being able to give a statement to Bay County Sheriff’s Office investigators on July 31, again naming his attacker.
Sullivan told jurors that the victim’s survival was not Cromartie’s plan.
“The simple fact is Cromartie failed. By the grace of God and despite being shot so many times in so many parts of his body, Angel Santos survived,” Sullivan told jurors. “The defendant pulled that trigger 12 separate times. He intended to kill him and left him to die, laying like a dog in that field, and went about his way.”
In early 2020, the defendant contacted the victim via a three-way call from the jail and discussed how much he would pay the victim to contact the State Attorney’s Office and drop the charge. Instead, investigators discovered the call and contacted the victim, who confirmed the defendant was trying to pay him off.
Basford thanked the Sheriff’s Office for its work on the case, and the citizens who stopped and saved the victim, and then testified.
For more information, contact Mike Cazalas at mike.cazalas@sa14.fl.gov, or call 850-381-7454.