A man was shot at a Key West bar. Now, the family has taken action against the suspect

The family of a man who was shot and killed outside a Key West bar in February is suing the business and the property owner accused of pulling the trigger.

The shooting shook the Southernmost City — not only because murder cases are rare in the Keys, but also because it involved two local well-known people.

The dead man, 21-year-old Garrett Hughes, was a standout student athlete working as a first mate on a charter fishing boat. His family is well-known in the community, and his father, John Hughes, is head football coach at Key West High School.

“This unspeakable act has left a beautiful family shattered and a community in mourning. We will seek Justice for the Hughes family in our wrongful death case and we believe the State will prosecute Brewer to the fullest extent under our criminal law system,” Stuart Grossman, an attorney with the firm hired by the Hughes family to file the wrongful death lawsuit late last month in Monroe County circuit court, said in a statement provided to the Miami Herald.

“We thank the people of Key West for their support and love,” Grossman said.

Police and prosecutors say Hughes was gunned down by Lloyd “Preston” Brewer III, a 57 year-old man whose family owns several businesses and properties in the city, including the building outside of which Hughes was killed.

Investigators say an intoxicated Brewer got out of a car, walked up to Hughes outside the Conch Town Liquor and Lounge the early morning of Feb. 13 — hours after the Kansas City Chiefs narrowly defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl — pulled a gun from his waistband and fired into Hughes’ torso.

Hughes, shirtless at the time, had just urinated on the outside wall of the bar. With at least one bullet in his body, Hughes fell to the ground as two friends rushed to his side and tried to save him, investigators said.

Paramedics took him to Lower Keys Medical Center, where doctors and nurses were prepping him to be flown to a Miami-Dade trauma hospital, but he died before the helicopter ambulance could take off.

Police arrested Brewer later that day.

Caught on camera

The incident was caught on security camera footage that has not been released to the public yet, prosecutors say. Brewer’s attorneys have yet to comment on the case, but Key West police at the time said he told officers he shot Hughes in self-defense.

Assistant Monroe County State Attorney Joseph Mansfield told the Miami Herald/FLKeysnews.com the day after the shooting that the security camera footage clearly contradicts that argument.

“There is no justifiable claim to self-defense because the kid was never armed and never advanced on the shooter. The shooter advanced on him,” Mansfield said.

One of Brewer’s attorneys, Donald Yates, declined to comment on the civil case when reached Monday.

Brewer doesn’t own the Conch Town Liquor and Lounge, but he does own the building that houses the business. The bar owners are not named in the lawsuit.

‘History of violence’

The lawsuit, filed by Garret Hughes’ parents — John Hughes and Lesley Touzalin — alleges several accusations, including that Brewer and his family, as owners of the North Roosevelt Boulevard multiple-storefront property that houses Conch Town Liquor and Lounge, were responsible for the suspect being served alcohol even though he was “a known, habitual drunkard” who has a “history of violence and weapons possession.”

The language refers to a Feb. 23, 2021, arrest on domestic violence in which Brewer was accused of punching his live-in partner in the face while she was driving him home from the Stock Island Yacht Club. As they continued arguing at home, he grabbed a handgun the family kept in the kitchen pantry, the woman told sheriff’s deputies, according to court documents.

Brewer ended up signing a no-prosecuting agreement with prosecutors in that case, stipulating he was prohibited from carrying a gun or using intoxicants “to excess” for a year, and he also had to take anger management classes. The terms of the agreement expired in April 2022.

Meanwhile, the criminal case against Brewer is pending. He remains in county jail with no bond on charges of second-degree murder and discharging a firearm while intoxicated.

His next court appearance is scheduled for May 2 in Key West, according to the Monroe County Clerk of the Court.