Michael Drejka, 48, the white Florida man who shot and killed Markeis McGlockton, 28, over a parking space dispute, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday, ABC News reports. And McGlockton’s family made it very clear that the murderer would receive neither hugs, nor forgiveness from them.
In the July 2018 incident, Drejka confronted McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, as she was sitting in the car with two of the couple’s children in the handicapped-accessible parking spot outside of a Circle A Food Store. Drejka began verbally attacking Jacobs. Defending his family, McGlockton walked outside and pushed Drejka to the ground, but turned to walk away when the man pulled a gun on him.
That didn’t stop Drejka, who, while still on the ground, shot McGlockton in front of Jacobs and two of their children. Critically wounded, the young father ran back inside of the store where he collapsed in front of his 5-year-old son Markeis Jr.
McGlockton died later at a local hospital. A few months after his death, Jacobs announced that she was pregnant with the couple’s 4th child.
The county sheriff cited Florida’s controversial and discriminatory ‘Stand Your Ground’ for not initially charging Drejka with a crime, claiming it gave him immunity from prosecution. Drejka’s defense tried—and failed—to use elements of the same law during the trial, arguing that the homicide was justified.
Jurors didn’t buy it.
As ESSENCE previously reported, a jury found Drejka guilty of manslaughter in August of this year, and he faced up to 30 years in prison.
“The defendant’s weakness, his cowardice and his anger … are the reasons Markeis is dead,” Jacobs told Drejka.
“My world will never be whole again,” she continued. “I no longer have my love, and they no longer have their dad.”
“Because of you, Michael Drejka, Markeis is now a memory,” McGlockton’s mother, Monica Robinson, told him Thursday. “I don’t hate you, but I will never forgive you.”
McGlockton’s father, Michael McGlockton, said he absolutely did not forgive Drejka for taking his only biological son away from him, and “because of you, our lives will never be the same.”
“You deserve to die in prison,” the distraught father continued. “In the Bible, it says that in order to get into heaven we must forgive those who trespass against us. At this point in my life, I am not there yet. And if it just so happens that the Lord chooses to take me before I come to terms with this, then I will see you in hell, where you and I will finish this. Mark my words.”
Drejka chose not to speak during the hearing, NBC News reports, and showed no emotion when he was sentenced.