HOLMES COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — Lawyers have selected a jury to hear the trial of a Marianna man charged with murder.
Latorish Gardner, 51, is accused of firing gunshots at two people at the rest stop during what was supposed to be a custody exchange of four children. Holmes County Sheriff’s investigators said Gardner was meeting the mother of the children, 30-year-old Mariah Maps who lived in Pensacola at the time.
She was accompanied by 36-year-old Dereck Todd Thompson Jr. Investigators said someone was late and that grew into a fight between Maps and Gardner. Thompson tried to break it up and that’s when authorities say Gardner started shooting.
Thompson was killed. Maps was wounded but recovered. Gardner is charged with second-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.
