A jury found Shannon Wright King guilty of first-degree murder this past Friday in the stabbing death of Jessica Steigelman, who was killed in 2024 in the parking lot of a Planet Fitness in Ocoee. Bystanders had pulled King off Steigelman and pinned him down before officers arrived, according to police accounts of the attack.
Ocoee police officers responded to the Planet Fitness at 10908 W. Colonial Drive after reports of a stabbing, according to the Orange Observer. A witness told investigators he saw King stabbing Steigelman with a large kitchen knife inside her Hyundai Tucson, and that witness, along with another person who was called for help, managed to get King off Steigelman and hold him down until police arrived. A separate account from the Daily Moth similarly described the witnesses restraining King after watching him actively stab her.
Officers found a large, bloody kitchen knife with a bent blade underneath the rear tire of Steigelman’s Tucson. Police performed CPR on Steigelman, who had stab wounds to her back, chest, throat and arms, before she was transported to Health Central Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. King was then arrested on first-degree murder and stalking charges.
A Two-and-a-Half-Year Case
The guilty verdict came Friday, Oct. 30, capping a prosecution that stretched well over two years from the night of the killing. Ocoee Police Chief Vincent L. Ogburn credited the department’s investigators and the prosecution team with methodically building the case against King, the Orange Observer’s report notes…