Trevontae Shuler walked up to Pizzano’s Pizza with a red hoodie tied tightly around his face and a gun in his hand.

About 5:15 p.m. on April 15, 2016, Shuler entered the Lake Wales store and pointed the weapon at the 16-year-old cashier, demanding she give him all the money from the register. Once he had the cash in hand, Shuler fled from the Lake Wales store, avoiding arrest by Lake Wales Police Department officers and a K-9.

Five days later, police spotted Shuler – who was wearing a hoodie tied around his face – at a RaceTrac. Shuler fled from officers again but was apprehended by a K-9 after ignoring requests to stand down.

A two-day trial came to a close after the jury deliberated for less than five minutes Thursday morning, finding Shuler guilty of robbery with a firearm.

Shuler was released from prison for grand theft of a firearm, trafficking in stolen property and attempted burglary of a dwelling just five months prior to committing the Pizzano’s robbery. He faces life in prison and will be sentenced for robbery with a firearm on January 26.

Law enforcement later found that the firearm Shuler used had been taken from a friend he was living with. They recovered the gun in a shed on another person’s property.

The defense attorney argued that because there was no evidence of fingerprints on the gun, anyone could have taken it. But when law enforcement checked the serial number on the firearm Schuler used and the one that had been taken from his friend, they matched.

Assistant State Attorney Jaenea Gorman reminded jurors that Shuler told law enforcement he took the gun from his friend.

“Why do we need fingerprints or DNA to prove it? He told you where he got it,” Gorman said. “We don’t need anything else.”

In closing statements on Thursday, she told jurors Shuler’s actions leading up to the incident proved that his sole intention upon entering Pizzano’s was to rob it, to which he later confessed. But the defense claimed Shuler’s confession was forced and that he had been falsely accused.

“These aren’t statements from somebody who is falsely confessing. These are statements from somebody who was actually there,” Gorman said, urging the jury to think back to Shuler’s taped confession that was played in court.

She reminded them that Shuler remembered exactly what he told the Pizzano’s cashier when he pointed the gun at her. He even repeated it to the detective: “Give me all of the cash out of the register.”

“Nobody prompted him to say that (in the confession),” Gorman said. “The detective wasn’t suggesting the answers. He was asking, and the defendant answered.”

After two and a half hours of deliberation, a jury found Wesley Booker guilty of first-degree murder.

Booker, 26, of Lakeland, shot and killed Maurice Knight – a rival gang member – in Feb. of 2015. Booker was sentenced to life in prison by Judge Harb immediately following his conviction at the end of a two-week trial.

Assistant State Attorneys David Stamey and Kristie Ducharme prosecuted the case, and in closing arguments Wednesday, Stamey told jurors the situation was a “recipe for disaster” from the beginning.

“These two (Booker and Knight) had a reason not to like each other,” Stamey said.

Knight’s gang got involved in a fight with Booker’s gang at a club in Winter Haven prior to the shooting, and Stamey said, security video shows Booker throwing punches at Knight.

After the fight was broken up, both sides went outside. Shots were fired into the air with Booker’s gun by fellow gang member Quintyn Davis, who was agitated after being “beat down” in the scuffle.

Booker’s friend Quintyn Davis was “beat down” in the scuffle. When they got in the car to leave, Booker asked Davis how they should deal with the fact that they’d been beaten.

They decided to follow the other gang back to Lakeland and “figure it out as they went,” Stamey said.

Booker saw the other gang’s vehicle turn into a gas station at Havendale Boulevard and U.S. 17. Booker turned off the lights to his vehicle and rolled down the window.

As he drove by, he pointed the gun at Knight and fired.

The footage shows people duck as Knight falls into a friend’s lap.

A bullet traveled through his lungs and lodged in his heart, killing him.

In Booker’s statement to police, he claimed Davis had the gun, reached over and fired at Knight from inside the car. But evidence rebutted Booker’s version of the story – a shell casing was found on the ground at the gas station.

“Booker gave multiple versions of what happened in an attempt to desperately wiggle off the hook he found himself on,” Stamey said.

Stamey anticipated the defense would argue that Booker simply fired in Knight’s direction and that it was an “Annie Oakley shot that he couldn’t reduplicate.”

“Does that in any way take away from the fact that he accomplished exactly what he did?” Stamey asked the jurors. “The fact that it was one heck of a shot is irrelevant. He succeeded with what he attempted to do.”

Stamey told the jury it was Booker’s decisions and actions alone that led to Knight’s death.

“He hit who he was aiming at,” Stamey said. “Hold him accountable.”