Palmetto man faces prison after shooting friend to death, prosecutors say
Nearly three years after investigators say he fatally shot his 16-year-old friend while playing with a gun, a Palmetto man could soon face more than a decade in prison.
Damian Anderson, 18, pleaded no contest to manslaughter by culpable negligence with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a minor in the 2022 killing of 16-year-old Damarion Smalls, according to court records.
Anderson is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 5 by Circuit Judge Frederick Mercurio, court records show. While manslaughter with a firearm is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison, Anderson’s attorney said prosecutors offered an open plea that limits any sentence to no more than 15 years.
Kiera Forlenza, Anderson’s attorney, said she hopes the judge will consider a sentence short of prison. She described the case as unusual to be handled in adult court because it stemmed from negligence rather than malice.
“There was no malice, there was no fight, there was no anything. It was really an accident,” Forlenza said.
The shooting happened July 19, 2022, at a home in the 900 block of 14th Street East in the Sylvan Oaks neighborhood of Palmetto, deputies said. They arrived to find Smalls with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Smalls was still breathing when paramedics took him to HCA Florida Blake Hospital in critical condition, where he was placed on life support. He died two days later, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
According to an arrest report, Anderson at first told deputies that Smalls had accidentally shot himself. Investigators said that account changed once he was confronted with evidence and witness statements.
Detectives said Anderson then admitted he was dancing to music with a 9mm Taurus handgun when he pointed it toward Smalls, who was sitting on a couch, and pulled the trigger. He described the shooting as an accident, the report says.
But Forlenza criticized how that admission was secured, calling the interrogation “one of the worst” she had ever seen.
Forlenza said the then-15-year-old spent nearly four hours on his stomach with his hands behind his back, begging for a public defender who was never provided. Detectives repeatedly told him “you did it,” she said, until Anderson told them he would say whatever they wanted “just so I could go home.”
Circuit Court Judge Frederick Mercurio later denied her motion to suppress Anderson’s statements from that interrogation, ruling they could be used in the case, according to court records.
Forlenza also argued that Anderson and Smalls were best friends who armed themselves because they felt unsafe after being shot at in their neighborhood. She said Anderson had been shot in the foot a few weeks before the fatal incident.
The sheriff’s office said deputies arrested Anderson within two hours of the July 19 shooting. He was first charged with attempted manslaughter, but the charge was upgraded after Smalls died.
Court records show Anderson underwent multiple mental health evaluations before Mercurio ruled him competent to stand trial in 2024. Anderson’s jury trial was cancelled after he submitted his plea in August.
