- May 18, 2024
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A Palm Coast man charged with the fatal March 2021 shooting of his 22-year-old girlfriend has been found guilty of murder.
A six-person jury found Brenan Hill, 34, guilty on Sept. 15 of second-degree murder in the shooting of Savannah Gonzalez. The jury also found him guilty of aggravated battery and firing a weapon inside an occupied vehicle.
Hill will be sentenced on Dec. 1.
Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark told the jury in her closing arguments on Sept. 15 that Gonzalez hadn't wanted Hill to own a gun because she was afraid he would kill her.
“Within a week of him obtaining that gun, he did exactly what she was afraid of," Clark said. "He shot her out of anger.”
Circuit Judge Terence Perkins presided over the case. Opening arguments in the trial began on Sept. 12 after jury selection on Sept. 11. Closing arguments began at 9 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 15, after three full days of witness and expert testimony.
She may have survived for about a year and a half, but she was never Savannah Gonzalez again.” — Melissa Clark, Assistant State Attorney
The six-person jury comprised of two men and four women, with an additional two alternates — one man and one woman. The jury deliberated for two hours and forty minutes before coming to a decision.
Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies had arrested Hill for the shooting in 2021. Gonzalez was shot in the head while the two were in their car in a Publix parking lot.
Hill had initially told detectives that he and Gonzalez had been in their parked car together when someone approached from behind in an alleyway, asked to buy weed, then shot Gonzalez in the head. He changed his story multiple times and later admitted that he’d shot Gonzalez, but said the shooting was accidental.
Gonzalez died of her injuries in November 2022. Hill pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
"She may have survived for about a year and a half," Clark said during closing arguments. "But she was never Savannah Gonzalez again.”
In a press release from the FCSO, Sheriff Rick Staly said thanked everyone involved in the investigation and prosecution of the case to bring justice for Savannah Gonzalez.
“Our investigative team became the voice of Savannah to get to the truth in this case," Staly said. "While we can’t bring Savannah back, we hope this brings some closure for her family.”
Our investigative team became the voice of Savannah to get to the truth in this case. ... While we can’t bring Savannah back, we hope this brings some closure for her family.” — Rick Staly, FCSO Sheriff
During closing arguments, Clark reviewed the evidence and testimonies, and said it all pointed to Hill and his "web of lies." He changed his story multiple times to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies and detectives interviewing him. He even gave new statements on the stand, she said.
“He’s lied over and over and over again,” she said. "If this was truly an accident, why are we coming up with a new version?”
Defense attorney Gerald Bettman argued that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting wasn't an accident or that Hill had a depraved mind, one of the standards for a second-degree murder charge.
“It’s a terrible case of lying and cover up,” Bettman said. “But there’s still reasonable doubt.”
Bettman argued that some evidence — like being able to decock the gun manually, which the defense said Hill was trying to do when it went off — was not proven beyond reasonable doubt. The state also did not show evidence of what happened inside the car, he said — just speculation.
“You have to know exactly what happened,” he said. “[The state has] to present that evidence.”
Without that additional evidence, the state was asking the jury to speculate, he said, and the only reasonable verdict for the jury to make was not guilty.
"They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt," Bettman said, "and it’s reasonable to believe that it was an accident.”
Clark said that there should be no doubt in the jury's mind that the shooting was not an accident.
“I'm arguing to you that we have proven beyond a reasonable doubt he is guilty of secondary murder," she said. "He was angry. He was frustrated, and he lashed out. And then he did everything he could do to try and hide the fact."
