Murder charge dropped in 2016 fatal shooting in Palmetto

Murder charges have been dropped against a Palmetto man in a March 2016 fatal shooting in what detectives say was a drug deal gone bad.

Xavier Seabrooks, 21, had been charged with second-degree murder with a firearm in the fatal shooting of Linzell Feagin Jr.

Seabrooks had been scheduled to stand trial this week.

On Tuesday, however, Seabrooks was released from the Manatee County jail after the State Attorney’s Office dropped the murder charge against him. Seabrooks had been in custody since his arrest on March 18, 2016.

Details as to why the case was dropped were not immediately available on Tuesday, but the announcement was made in open court on Monday.

Feagin Jr. was found with a gunshot wound just before 1 a.m. March 4 when Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to RaceTrac at 1730 U.S. 41 in Palmetto at 1 a.m. The victim was rushed to a local hospital where he later died as a result of the wound.

Detectives with the Manatee Homicide Investigative Unit determined that the shooting had actually taken place in the 2100 block of Third Avenue East, Palmetto. It was Seabrooks’ girlfriend who detectives say told them that Seabrooks admitted to shooting Feagin Jr. because the victim had shorted his brother several bags of heroin.

Seabrooks and his girlfriend had been home arguing all day on the day of the shooting, she told detectives at the time. According to their reports, when Seabrooks went outside, she heard a gunshot and he came back in a hurry, saying they needed to go. In the days that followed, Seabrooks admitted to the shooting, giving her details and crying over what he had done, detectives have said.

Seabrooks always denied being the shooter but provided inconsistent and conflicting stories about where he had been on the night of the homicide.

According to the sheriff’s office, Feagin Jr.’s girlfriend had told detectives that she had been driving the night he was shot. They had gone to Palmetto from Bradenton to buy drugs because she was an addict, according to detectives, and picked up another man along the way.

The other man in the car, who detectives said had also witnessed the shooting, had also identified Seabrooks as the shooter.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Murder charge dropped in 2016 fatal shooting in Palmetto."