PALM BAY, Fla. – The state is seeking the death penalty against a man accused of shooting and killing three people in Palm Bay earlier this year.
Ta’Shawn Taylor was indicted in February on three counts of first-degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the deaths of Lisa Suglam, 31; Angela Suglam, 60; and Stephen Suglam, 79. The two shooting victims who survived were a 15-year-old boy and Gary Taylor, 59.
The state filed a notice April 4 that it would seek the death penalty, saying the murders were “committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.”
The shooting happened in January at the Woodlake Village Apartment Homes.
Prosecutors said witnesses at the scene spotted Taylor driving away, later to be stopped by police and arrested within the hour on Babcock Street.
According to a probable cause affidavit, one of the victims was standing near the door of Angella Suglam’s bedroom speaking with her and Lisa Suglam when Taylor stepped out of his bedroom and fired a shot toward him. The victim thought he was struck and fell to the floor inside the bedroom before Taylor stepped into the room and shot another time, hitting Lisa Suglam, according to the affidavit. The victim on the floor “pretended to be dead” to not get shot at again, the affidavit says.
Taylor will be back in court on May 9.
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