The State Attorney’s office confirmed they are reviewing both Shehorn and Deprisco’s cases but wouldn’t say if the charges would be raised to attempted murder because of the severity of the attack.
“We do not comment on pending charging decisions,” Noel Piros, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office, said. “When a charging decision has been made, the appropriate documents will be filed with the Clerk of the Court.”
KnightNews.com legal analyst and Orlando attorney Lisa Figueroa said that it’s possible that the charges could be raised to include attempted murder, but Shehorn would have had to show an intent to kill the victim.
“It is possible, though may be unlikely unless the interviews with the victim or witnesses indicate an intent on Shehorn’s part to not stop, or to murder him, or if they believe it was reasonably likely to lead to death,” Figueroa said. “…my best guess is that if they do upgrade it, it would ultimately be pled down to what the officer arrested him for.”
Figueroa said that as long as all the witnesses are cooperative and available, the state will have a strong case against Shehorn, and his defense won’t be strong.
“A potential defense is going to be that the victim initiated the altercation, however, when the reaction becomes this violent, once the threat/danger was removed, (Shehorn’s) continuation of the beating is what will be problematic,” Figueroa said. “We don’t know what they will say was what prompted the altercation or what prior dealings these individuals had, that may also come into play both for potential mitigating as well as aggravating factors.”
Lauren Rease, a UCF junior majoring in public administration, said she was really shocked to hear a UCF student was injured so severely on campus but was even more concerned when she recognized the names of the alleged aggressors. Rease said she attended Countryside High School in Clearwater with the two.
“When I saw the headline It was really upsetting, and then when I saw who got arrested I was in shock,” Rease said. “It’s honestly devastating and very concerning. You always hear about stuff like this else where, and you never think it’ll happen in your own ‘home’ so to say, and when it does it brings so many questions to rise.”
