Palmetto man sentenced to prison for killing 18-year-old at graduation party
A Palmetto man will spend the next three decades in state prison after a jury found he shot and killed an 18-year-old at a graduation party, a judge ruled Wednesday.
A Manatee County judge sentenced 23-year-old Jose Alfredo Gomez to 30 years in prison for aggravated battery with great bodily harm with a firearm in a case where prosecutors said he fatally shot Fernando Garcia-Nunez during a fight at a Palmetto nightclub.
Circuit Judge Frederick Mercurio sentenced Gomez on the aggravated battery conviction and did not impose a separate sentence on a manslaughter count tied to the same shooting, citing double jeopardy rules that limit multiple punishments for a single fatal act.
Florida law requires lengthy prison terms for certain crimes committed with firearms. Because the jury found that Gomez possessed and discharged a gun and caused death or great bodily harm, the law required a mandatory 30-year prison sentence.
Shooting victim’s mother speaks out
Before Wednesday’s sentencing, the court heard a statement read on behalf of Garcia-Nunez’s mother, who described the loss of her son as world-shattering and urged the judge to hold Gomez “fully accountable.”
“He is my son, my heart, my pride, my baby,” she said. “With one gun, his life was taken from this world.”
“You didn’t just kill my son,” the statement continued. “You destroyed my world.”
She asked the judge to remember her son’s name, Fernando Garcia-Nunez, and said one choice ended an innocent life that should never be forgotten.
Speaking through an interpreter, Gomez’s mother addressed the court and maintained her son’s innocence, pleading for leniency .
“I know my son,” she said. “I know he didn’t do this.”
Palmetto man sentenced in fatal shooting
According to an arrest report, the charges stem from a June 2023 shooting during a graduation party in the parking lot of The Hall, a Palmetto nightclub at 1330 U.S. 301 N. that has since closed.
Prosecutors said Gomez slapped a woman during the event, sparking a confrontation. When Garcia-Nunez intervened, investigators said Gomez pulled a gun and shot him once in the chest.
Paramedics rushed Garcia-Nunez to HCA Florida Blake Hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Detectives arrested Gomez hours later and initially charged him with second-degree murder with a firearm, records show.
Prosecutors later amended the case, and a jury ultimately convicted Gomez of manslaughter by culpable negligence with a firearm and aggravated battery with great bodily harm with a firearm in August, according to court records.
Court records also show Gomez was on probation for a 2021 misdemeanor battery conviction at the time of the shooting, stemming from a fight at a gas station.
“Gomez never should have been in possession of a gun in the first place, and then he committed this crime,” Assistant State Attorney Dickey Hough, the lead prosecutor, said earlier in the case. He said at the time that he hoped Gomez’s criminal behavior would be “punished severely” and that the victim’s family would receive justice.
