Woman who shot boyfriend to death during gun game cleared under Stand Your Ground
A woman accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend during a gun game they were playing in Hollywood can’t be tried for manslaughter, a Broward judge ruled last week.
Brittany Brothers, 29, had her manslaughter charge dismissed on Friday under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which allows a person to take up to deadly action if they feel their life is threatened.
“The State did not present substantial, competent, clear and convincing evidence sufficient to satisfy its burden of proof to disprove [Brothers’]... claim of self-defense,” Broward Circuit Court Judge Tim Bailey said in his order dismissing the case.
Brothers told Hollywood police what happened that day in September 2022, when she and her boyfriend were playing a game in which they pointed their guns at each other, court records show. Brothers claimed that before the shooting, her boyfriend was holding a gun, pulled the trigger and said: “This b---- almost went off.”
Brothers then shot her boyfriend with her Glock.
Brothers, who lives in Naples, was charged with manslaughter in September 2023, a year after the shooting.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office said Tuesday it plans to appeal Bailey’s ruling to the 4th District Court of Appeal.
Defense attorney Ken Padowitz said Brothers, fearing for her life, fired in self-defense. He added that Brothers was a domestic violence victim with “repeated instances of violence perpetuated against her.”
“The evidence clearly showed that she was immune from prosecution... under the Stand Your Ground law,” Padowitz told the Herald on Tuesday. “The evidence clearly showed to us that she should have never been arrested or prosecuted by the Broward State Attorney’s Office. The judge heard the evidence and agreed that the state could not prove its case...”
Bailey had also barred prosecutors from showing jurors Brothers’ interview with police. The judge noted the evidence was thrown out because Brothers was handcuffed and not given a Miranda warning, which advises a person being arrested of their rights, before speaking with detectives.
During the interview, Brothers told investigators that her boyfriend would hate her because his face was injured, according to court documents. She said she hoped he would forgive her, also exclaiming “Damn what did I do?” and “This should never have happened.”
In a phone call in front of detectives, Brothers told her mother she was sorry and that she knew “we aren’t supposed to play with guns.” Brothers, police say, also said she wanted to take what happened back as DNA and fingerprints were collected from her.
