Michael Drejka Case: Shooting, Trial, Appeal, and Prison Attack

The Michael Drejka case is the Florida prosecution of a 48-year-old Clearwater man who fatally shot Markeis McGlockton, an unarmed 28-year-old father, during a July 19, 2018 dispute over a handicapped parking space. Drejka invoked Florida’s stand your ground law, but a jury convicted him of manslaughter in August 2019, and a judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison. An appeals court upheld the conviction in December 2021.

What Happened Outside the Circle A Food Store

McGlockton parked in a handicapped space outside the Circle A Food Store in Clearwater while his girlfriend Britany Jacobs and three of their children waited in the car. He went inside. Drejka pulled up, parked next to them, and started confronting Jacobs about the space. Witnesses described him as shouting and aggressive. When Jacobs asked whether he wanted her to get her boyfriend, Drejka answered, “Yes, if you want him to fight.”¹

McGlockton walked out of the store, approached Drejka, and shoved him hard to the ground. Surveillance video captured what came next in about eleven seconds. McGlockton took several steps backward and began to retreat. Drejka, still on the ground, drew a concealed handgun and fired a single shot through McGlockton’s heart. McGlockton stumbled back inside the store and collapsed in front of one of his children. He was pronounced dead.²¹

Witnesses said Drejka was calm afterward, muttering, “He shouldn’t have pushed me down. What did he think was gonna happen?” In his police interview he used tactical language to explain the shooting, citing the “21-foot rule” and describing his gun as a “force multiplier” used to “neutralize the immediate threat.”¹

Why He Wasn’t Arrested at the Scene

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri initially declined to arrest Drejka, saying he was “bound by the law” once Drejka invoked stand your ground. Gualtieri said the statute limited his discretion to arrest when the shooter’s conduct was “arguably within the parameters” of self-defense, and that any charging decision belonged to the state attorney.³

Protests followed in Clearwater and elsewhere. Attorney Benjamin Crump, representing McGlockton’s family, accused Drejka of trying to “hide behind ‘stand your ground’ to defend his indefensible actions.”⁴³

Less than a month later, Pinellas County State Attorney Bernie McCabe charged Drejka with manslaughter, a felony carrying up to 30 years. McCabe said he had reviewed all witness interviews and the video before concluding, “I went through it all and made the legal decision that that is the charge that we could prove.” Drejka appeared in court on August 14, 2018, and was held on $100,000 bond.⁵

The Earlier Parking Confrontation

McGlockton was not Drejka’s first target over a handicapped space. About five months earlier, in February 2018, Drejka confronted Richard Kelly at the same Circle A Food Store after Kelly parked his septic company truck in a handicapped spot. Kelly said Drejka was “lurking” and taking photos when he returned to the truck, then “flipped out,” used racial slurs, and told him, “I should shoot you, kill you.” The store’s owner intervened. Drejka later called Kelly’s employer and said Kelly was “lucky,” and that “if he had a gun, he could have shot” him.⁶¹

Seven years before the McGlockton shooting, a sheriff’s report documented an allegation that Drejka flashed a handgun at two teenagers during a road rage dispute. Deputies found a gun in his car; Drejka denied brandishing it.⁷

The Trial

Drejka’s trial began August 21, 2019, before Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Joseph Bulone. The jury was five men and one woman; no Black jurors were seated, which drew criticism from attorneys for McGlockton’s parents.⁸

Prosecutor Fred Schaub built the case around the surveillance video showing McGlockton retreating before Drejka fired. Jacobs and store customer Robert Castelli testified that McGlockton made no further threats after the initial shove. Police trainer Dr. Roy Bedard testified that Drejka had misused tactical jargon in his police interview to create what the appeals court later described as a “false air of necessity.” Bedard said the “21-foot rule” does not authorize shooting an unarmed person just because they are within that distance, and that Drejka had full control of his firearm when he pulled the trigger.⁹¹

The judge also admitted the Richard Kelly confrontation under Florida’s Williams Rule, which allows prior bad acts to rebut a self-defense claim. The court found the two incidents “extraordinarily similar” and only months apart, evidence that Drejka’s motivation was anger over parking rather than fear of imminent harm.¹

Defense attorney Bryant Camareno argued the shooting was excusable self-defense. He told the jury Drejka had been blindsided by the shove and was in “shock, confusion” when he fired, and that “in his state of mind, it’s the appearance of danger that caused him to act.” The defense also introduced toxicology results showing MDMA in McGlockton’s system and called Dr. Daniel Buffington, who suggested the drug could contribute to impulsive or aggressive behavior.⁹¹⁰

The jury deliberated about six hours before returning a guilty verdict on August 23, 2019.²

The Sentence

On October 10, 2019, Judge Bulone sentenced Drejka to 20 years in prison, with credit for 92 days served, and ordered $5,000 in restitution for funeral expenses. The judge called Drejka a “wannabe cop” and a self-appointed “handicapped parking space monitor” who had “abused his right to own a firearm.” Bulone noted Drejka himself was parked illegally at the time, and said the defendant had shown no remorse: “I’ve heard the defendant felt justified in what he did and that he’d do it again. That’s not really remorse.”¹¹²

Britany Jacobs asked the court for the maximum 30 years, telling the judge, “The defendant’s weakness, his cowardice and his anger are the reasons Markeis is dead.” McGlockton’s father, Michael McGlockton, addressed Drejka directly: “You deserve to die in prison.” Drejka declined to speak. A letter from his wife, Cara Drejka, was read into the record saying “he is not the man that the prosecutors and media have made him out to be.”²¹¹

The Appeal

Drejka raised eight issues before Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal. A three-judge panel (Judges Edward LaRose, Stevan Northcutt, and Suzanne Labrit) issued a 31-page opinion on December 29, 2021, affirming the conviction and sentence in full.¹²

On self-defense, the panel held that the surveillance video and eyewitness testimony of McGlockton retreating were enough for a jury to reject Drejka’s account. The court also found no abuse of discretion in admitting the Richard Kelly incident under the Williams Rule, or in allowing the slow-motion video, the expert testimony on tactical terminology, and the other rulings Drejka challenged.¹

Attack in Prison

On February 11, 2020, while housed at Lancaster Correctional Institution in north Florida, Drejka was attacked from behind by inmate Benjamin Martin, who hit him in the head with a padlock stuffed inside a sock. Drejka needed five stitches. His attorney, Bryant Camareno, said Drejka believed he was targeted because of the case. Drejka was later moved to another facility and placed in protective custody. Martin, 31, who was serving six years for drug trafficking, was held in confinement pending administrative and criminal investigations.¹³¹⁴

The Debate Over Stand Your Ground

The case drew immediate comparisons to the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. Benjamin Crump, who had represented the Martin family as well, argued that both Drejka and Zimmerman were “initial aggressors” who confronted their victims before claiming self-defense, and that stand your ground laws “disproportionately” affect young Black men.¹⁵

McGlockton’s mother, Monica Moore-Robinson, described the conviction as a potential “brick in the road to changing the culture of racism here in Florida.” Family attorney Michele Rayner-Goolsby called the statute “legalized murder.” After sentencing, Crump called the outcome “fair and historic.”¹⁶¹¹

In the weeks after the shooting, the Florida Legislative Black Caucus said it planned to file legislation on what it called ambiguities in the stand your ground law, and State Senator Darryl Rouson called for a special session to review the statute. The special session effort failed in the Republican-dominated legislature.¹⁷ Representative Michele Rayner later filed HB 73, the “Self-Defense Restoration Act,” which would reimpose a duty to retreat and repeal stand your ground immunity provisions. As of late 2021, Rayner acknowledged the bill faced an “uphill battle.”¹⁸

1
Caselaw Findlaw. Drejka v. State
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ABC News. Stand Your Ground Killer Michael Drejka Sentenced to 20 Years
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Good Morning America. Sheriff Made Correct Decision in Florida Stand Your Ground Shooting
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ABC News. Florida Stand Your Ground Shooter Michael Drejka
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NBC News. Michael Drejka Charged in Florida Stand Your Ground Killing
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Bay News 9. Clearwater Gunman Confronted Man Over Parking Spot Weeks Before Stand Your Ground Shooting
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WFLA. Stand Your Ground: Who Is Michael Drejka
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WUSF. Jury Selected in Clearwater Parking Lot Shooting Case
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WUSF. Prosecutors Cite Previous Incident as Michael Drejka Trial Begins
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Tampa Bay Times. Trial in the Clearwater Parking Lot Shooting
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WUSF. Markeis McGlocktons Family: 20-Year Sentence for Michael Drejka Fair, Historic
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WUSF. Conviction Upheld in Pinellas County Parking Lot Shooting
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Tampa Bay Times. Prison Inmate Attacked Michael Drejka
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NBC News. Man Who Killed Unarmed Black Man in Parking Lot Dispute Attacked
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Time. Florida Stand Your Ground Markeis McGlockton
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CNN. Florida Trial Michael Drejka
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WUSF. Stand Your Ground Changes Sought After Shooting
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The Florida Bar. Bill Would Modify Stand Your Ground Law