This week, Jose Alfredo Gomez was convicted of Manslaughter by Culpable Negligence With A Firearm and Aggravated Battery with Great Bodily Harm With A Firearm. The crimes were committed on June 11, 2023, and were investigated by the Palmetto Police Department in conjunction with the Manatee County Homicide Investigative Unit.
The victim, Fernando Garcia-Nunez, was shot in the parking lot of The Hall nightclub in Palmetto as a graduation party was taking place inside. The victim intervened in an altercation that started when the defendant, Jose Gomez, slapped a female partygoer. The altercation ended with Gomez, who was on probation at the time, pulling a gun and firing a single shot into Fernando’s chest. Fernando later died at the hospital as a result.
“Gomez never should have been in possession of a gun in the first place, and then he committed this crime,” said Assistant State Attorney Dickey Hough, lead prosecutor in the case. “It is our hope that his criminal behavior is punished severely and that the victim’s family receives justice for the death of their loved one.”…