‘As if you pulled the trigger’: Lookout at music hall mass shooting gets life in prison
The only person convicted of taking part in the “largest” mass shooting in Miami-Dade County history will spend the rest of his life in prison — despite never firing a single bullet — a judge ruled Friday.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez said Davonte Barnes, 24, played an “integral” role in the 2021 Memorial Day weekend shooting at a North Miami-Dade music hall in which three people were killed and 20 others injured. Then she sentenced him to 23 concurrent life sentences.
“It’s as if, Mr. Barnes, you had pulled the trigger,” the judge said before Barnes, seated alone in the jury box and dressed in a red jumpsuit, was fingerprinted and escorted to prison.
Barnes, the admitted “lookout” in an escalating dispute between two Opa-locka gangs, was sentenced in a tense courtroom with a heavy police presence and filled with family members and friends of the victims. Just before the judge’s ruling, and on the advice of his attorney Robert Barrar, Barnes offered a brief statement of regret.
“I’m truly sorry for what happened,” he said, looking toward family members of Desmond Owens and Clayton Dillard III, both 26, and Shankquia Lechelle Peterson, 32, the trio gunned down and killed outside the entrance of El Mula banquet hall on what should have been a festive weekend two years ago.
Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Christopher Flanagan, calling it the largest mass shooting in the history of Miami-Dade County, told Tinkler Mendez there was no room for leniency in her sentencing.
“He’s as guilty as the killers. It’s as if he pulled the trigger under the law,” Flanagan said.
In September, jurors found Barnes guilty of three counts of second-degree murder and 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder for the brazen shooting that rocked South Florida and came amid a string of high-profile shootings that police believe were retaliatory gang attacks.
During an interrogation before his 2021 arrest, Barnes told detectives the shooting was the result of a feud between senior members of opposing gangs known as the Back Blues and The Bricks. He said after a meeting with several associates near his home, a decision was made to take out Antonio “Foepack” Jones, a local rapper who was part of a group that had a music release party at El Mula the night of the shooting.
Prosecutors showed jurors how several members of The Bricks pulled into the parking lot at El Mula, 7630 NW 186th St., before the end of the show and opened fire with high-powered rifles as patrons were leaving. They believe the gunfire came from the occupants of three vehicles, a white Nissan Pathfinder, a black Nissan Altima and a black Cadillac. Several weeks after the shooting, Barnes took part in a rap video released on YouTube called “The Pull Up” that state prosecutors told jurors repeatedly referred to and glorified the incident. In the video, Barnes held a handgun.
A man named Warneric Anthony Buckner was also taken into custody for the shooting. But the state dropped the charges against Buckner after prosecutors determined detectives erred during an interrogation and after Buckner invoked his right to counsel. Buckner was in prison earlier this year when the state charged him with the murder of a 6-year-old Liberty City girl who was leaving a birthday party.
During Friday’s hearing, Charlene Peterson, whose daughter was killed outside El Mula, stood inside the courtroom well staring directly at Barnes and showed him a picture of her dead daughter.
“My child didn’t deserve that,” Peterson said. “She was a mother. She was a daughter. ... Now I can’t talk to her ever again.”
Also speaking to Barnes was Clayton Dillard Sr., whose son was shot and killed outside El Mula. He said he originally wanted Barnes to get the death penalty.
“But I thought about it,” he said facing Barnes directly, his anger boiling over. “And no. You need to sit and suffer every day. The system works. And it’s going to work for you.”
