MIAMI – A man set to plead guilty Monday to attempted murder in connection with a 2021 shooting will instead head to trial after a Miami-Dade judge said a sentence negotiated as part of a plea deal wasn’t appropriate.
That rejection came after the woman police said was the victim in the May 21, 2021 Miami Gardens shooting, Bridget Knighton, took the stand.
She testified that the suspect, Gayle Renard Blount, violated a restraining order multiple times on the day of the shooting, coming to her apartment when he wasn’t supposed to.
The third time, she testified that he retrieved a gun from a car and shot her eight times as she sat on a sofa, telling her, “Look what you made me do” as she lay bleeding.
Blount, 55, was set to receive a 20-year prison sentence before Knighton testified.
Knighton described undergoing 11 surgeries, chronic health problems and having to walk with a cane since the shooting.
She also described multiple prior instances of abuse from Blount and ways in which she felt the courts and legal system had failed her for years.
In the end, Miami-Dade Judge Ellen Sue Venzer agreed with Knighton, saying 20 years was not enough punishment.
“I think that the idea here is that I would have to agree that that would be an appropriate sentence, and I don’t,” Venzer said.
Speaking with local media following the rejection, Knighton lauded the judge’s decision.
“Had she not heard me speak on just some of the details she would have never agreed to the 20 years,” Knighton said. “So I thank her for being candid and human. Just human.”
Venzer said she wants to move quickly on Blount’s trial and plans to begin jury selection as early as Tuesday.