A brutal Keys murder involving wood shoved down a man’s throat ends in a life sentence
A 2017 Key West murder case ended Thursday in a plea deal that left the killer with a life sentence instead of the death penalty she was facing if convicted at trial.
Justin Tyler Calhoun, 28, who identifies as a woman, pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole by Monroe County Chief Judge Mark Jones. Her lawyers used “Kaydon” as part of her name in a court filing.
On Aug. 14, 2017, Calhoun attacked Mark Brann, 67, in Brann’s home on 12th Street, stabbing him in both eyes with a pen, forcing a piece of wood down his throat and beating him with a dresser drawer, police said.
Brann, who owned a scooter rental company, died the next day.
Kaydon Calhoun made off with more than $10,000 in cash, more than 100 hydrocodone pills prescribed to Brann and almost one ounce of cocaine, said prosecutor Christine Poist, who handled the case.
Calhoun, who said she and Brann had a sexual relationship, on Thursday also pleaded no contest to robbery and was sentenced to 15 years. She will serve the sentences concurrently.
Lawyers for Calhoun in 2019 argued that Calhoun’s use of deadly force was justified under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law. But Jones denied the motion, writing that Calhoun was in a “maniacal state, acting not out of fear but out of rage.”
In a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday, public defenders Kevin McCarthy and Jason Smith said the life-sentence plea was against their advice and Calhoun only considered it “due to the specter of the death penalty.”
A grand jury indicted Calhoun on a first-degree murder charge, finding the murder took place during a robbery. But McCarthy and Smith wrote, “At most, it was a panicked taking after the fact.”
They said the case involved “a terrified transgender woman who defended herself against an abusive partner who threatened her with a gun during an argument.”
Calhoun told police that she and Brann got into an argument after she asked him whether he was a cannibal, according to the arrest report.
Brann then picked up a gun and she tried to take it away, she said. During the struggle, the gun went off but no one was shot.
Calhoun said she took the gun and planned to shoot Brann, but the gun jammed, police reported. That’s when she used a pen to stab Brann’s eyes and placed a piece of wood, which was from a dresser that had been broken during the fight, into Brann’s mouth and stomped on it, police said.
Jones said Calhoun was “no longer justified in using deadly force” once Brann was unarmed and blinded.
“Yet the defendant did not stop but continued to brutally attack Mr. Brann,” Jones wrote.
A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt.
“You admit that the state could prove the case against you,” said Val Winter, chief assistant state attorney. “You admit the elements of the crime but nothing more.”
When jailed, Calhoun identified as female and was placed in a private cell in the male section of the county jail on Stock Island, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said at the time. Calhoun’s attorneys said their client was in the process of transitioning from male to female.
Calhoun remains in a private cell, said sheriff’s office spokesman Adam Linhardt. In jail records listed Thursday, Calhoun is listed as a male.
