2010 revenge murder case goes to trial
TAMPA (FOX 13) - A jury will have to decide if the murder of two men was a revenge killing or a rush to judgment by police. Pretrial hearings began for a case six years in the making, and brings the mother of the victims into a courtroom searching for justice.
Defense attorney Lyann Goudie represents Michael Keetley, a former ice cream truck driver accused of shooting two men as they sat on the porch of a home.
Goudie says police arrested the wrong man, and an eye witness in the case cannot be trusted.
"To have him come in and point to Michael Keetly in front of a jury and say, 'he's the guy,' undermines everything that's supposed to be fair, " Goudie said in court Friday.
Keetley is accused of shooting at a group of men sitting on a porch Thanksgiving day in 2010. Two died, four were injured.
Hillsborough Prosecutor Jay Pruner say Keetly was blinded by vengeance after he was shot and robbed weeks earlier, while on his ice cream route.
Years later, Goudie is fighting to get evidence thrown out before the case goes to trial.
She said the witnesses who survived the shooting never identified Keetley as the shooter and was drinking and using drugs that day.
"That's exactly the type of identification that should never come into a court of law," said Goudie.
She also suggested one of the key witnesses in the case may be a police informant, which prosecutors deny.
Meanwhile, Paz Quezada watches quietly in the courtroom. Her sons, Juan and Sergio died in the shooting.
She said her heart and soul went with them that day.
"We three were like one person. Me and my boys," Quezada said.
Justice is all this heartbroken mother has left.