Palmetto cold case closed: Parrish man gets prison time after fatal drive-by shooting
After over seven years as a cold case, an investigation into a fatal Palmetto shooting ended with a Parrish man sentenced to more than a decade in prison.
A Manatee County judge sentenced Ricardo Garcia, 33, to 10 years and 8 months in prison for killing 26-year-old Javare Thomas in a 2014 drive-by shooting at a Palmetto intersection, according to court records.
Garcia, who pleaded no contest to manslaughter in April ahead of a scheduled murder trial, was also ordered to serve two years of probation and community control following his release. Garcia was given credit for time served for a little over a year spent in jail leading up to the case’s resolution.
Circuit Court Judge Frederick Mercurio also ordered Garcia to undergo a new mental health evaluation upon his release.
An attorney for Garcia did not immediately respond to the Bradenton Herald’s request for comment.
The sentencing comes nearly 10 years after investigators say Garcia mistook Thomas for someone else while seeking revenge for a fight at a Palmetto nightclub earlier that night. Detectives say Garcia shot and killed Thomas, a Sarasota resident, near the intersection of Haben Boulevard and U.S. 41.
Mistaken identity in fatal drive-by
The case remained cold for over seven years until the Palmetto Police Department announced Garcia as a suspect and arrested him for first-degree murder in April 2021 after witnesses and a tip from an anonymous source in 2019 pegged him as the shooter, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Police say the chain of events that led to Thomas’ death began in the early hours of March 22, 2014, when Garcia got into a fistfight with another patron in the bathroom of The Hall, a popular Palmetto nightclub.
Security removed Garcia, who was bloodied from the altercation and saw him get into the driver’s seat of a black pickup truck with the name “Garcia” on the cab window before leaving the club, according to an arrest report.
Around that time, a Palmetto police officer working security at the club reported seeing a silver Cadillac attempt to pull into the nightclub’s parking lot before abruptly swerving back onto U.S. 301, nearly hitting another car.
Investigators say Garcia, believing he was following the man he had fought with earlier in the bathroom, pursued the Cadillac as it and another vehicle, a 2002 Mercury Marquis with Thomas in the front passenger seat, turned onto Haben Boulevard at the same time.
Police said the Cadillac and the Mercury were “similar in appearance.”
As the Mercury approached the intersection of Haben Boulevard and U.S. 41, two witnesses inside the car told police they saw a black pickup truck pull up alongside them. At that moment, police say Garcia fired several shots into the Mercury, striking Thomas in the head.
The driver rushed Thomas to Manatee Memorial Hospital, but he later died from his injuries.
Palmetto cold case solved through anonymous tip
Despite the case going unsolved for years, Garcia came under police suspicion shortly after the shooting when witness descriptions of the black truck matched a 2009 Chevy pick-up Bradenton police say they pulled over in November 2013.
The vehicle was registered to Garcia’s father, but police say Garcia drove the truck on the night of the November police encounter and was also the driver the night of the shooting.
Detectives say they returned to The Hall a few days after the shooting and showed the security guard a picture of Garcia, who identified him as the man he had escorted to the black pickup truck on the night of the fight.
Later, detectives spoke to Garcia’s father, asking about the truck’s location. He claimed it was at a friend’s house in the Wauchula area but did not provide an exact address, according to arrest records.
When investigators located the truck at a maintenance facility in Hardee County days later, they say they discovered the driver’s side mirror and the “Garcia” sticker on the rear window had been removed.
Surveillance footage at the repair shop shows the truck arrived less than two days after the shooting, police said.
Detectives said a witness told them the Garcia family attempted to cover up the shooting by replacing the mirror, which had been damaged in the shooting. They also said a 2019 tip from an anonymous source told them Garcia thought he was following the man who beat him up at the club when he “emptied the entire clip” of a handgun into the wrong vehicle.
In April 2021, Palmetto Police announced they were prepared to charge Garcia with Thomas’ murder. The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Marshals helped locate him.
A few weeks later, Garcia turned himself in to authorities.
“As a mother, this will never go away. Ever,” Tonya Thomas, the victim’s mother, said in 2019. “My family suffered very much. Not only my family, the community, his friends. Javare is well-known as a loving person and we will keep our hearts as a family as a whole to uplift his standards.”
