Michael Keetley: Ice-cream man on double murder trial for taking revenge on suspected robbers who left him disabled
TAMPA, FLORIDA: An ice cream man who stands accused of shooting two men to death on Thanksgiving Day in 2010 faces a double murder retrial on Monday, March 6. The prosecutors called Michael Keetley a revenge-seeking vigilante who was left permanently disabled during a robbery in 2010.
The suspected robbers stole $12 from the Florida man and allegedly shot him four times before leaving him outside his purple ice cream truck. Ten months after the incident, Juan Guitron, 28, and Sergio Guitron, 22, were found dead. The double murder of the brothers was presumed as an act of revenge by the ice cream man, reported Law and Crime.
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Keetley's second double murder trial
Before his trial in 2020, the 53-year-old man spent over 10 years in Falkenburg Road County Jail and he maintained his innocence throughout that period. However, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on that trial and two jurors believed that Keetley was not guilty. On four counts of attempted murder and two counts of first-degree murder, he will be facing a retrial.
"What am I going to do," Keetley asked cops during the initial police interview as he pointed to his disability as a reason for being unable to carry out the killings. "Hobble over there and shoot them left-handed?" he asked.
Shooting survivors testified against Keetley
In his retrial, Keetley will face a new jury. The last moments of the brothers who were called "Magic" and "Spider" by their friends will be heard by the jury. In the first trial, Daniel Beltran, a shooting survivor testified by detailing the incident. The shooter arrived at the scene sometime after 2.00 am in a dark van, according to Beltran who pointed out that the shooter carried a long gun and wore a T-shirt with the word 'sheriff' written across the chest.
The attacker aimed at the group of men sitting in front of the porch of the Ruskin home. He then charged at the men who were playing cards. The gunman then asked the group for someone named 'Creeper'. After that, he lined up everyone up on the ground and demanded to reveal their identity. The first man to protest the encounter was Juan Guitron who was the first to be fatally shot.
Gonzalo Guevara, another survivor of the horrifying shooting testified that he got a good look at the shooter, and with no doubts left, he identified the gunman as being Keetley. According to Law and Crime, the trial's opening statements began in Tampa on Monday and if convicted, the ice cream man will be sentenced to life behind the bars without the possibility of parole.