PANAMA CITY — A man who shot a potential customer in daylight in the parking lot of a 23rd Street hardware store during a marijuana deal gone awry has been sentenced to serve 24 years in prison, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
Circuit Judge Brantley Clark Jr. sentenced 29-year-old Sonny Eric Pierce, of Panama City Beach, to 24 years in prison Tuesday for the June 2013 shooting.
Assistant State Attorney Bob Sombathy took Pierce to trial March 10 and showed jurors that Pierce tried to gun down Jeremy R. Ducharme the afternoon in the parking lot of the 23rd Street Home Depot. Ducharme had driven a man to meet Pierce and two others so the man could buy marijuana, but the deal went bad and Ducharme and his companion had to run for their lives.
Pierce followed them with a .357 caliber handgun and opened fire as they tried to drive out of the lot. Ducharme was struck by two bullet fragments, but his injuries did not require medical treatment.
Pierce was found guilty of aggravated battery with a firearm and shooting into an occupied vehicle. The aggravated battery was charged under the 10-20-life statute, which required a minimum mandatory prison sentence of 20 years. Clark also had to run consecutively whatever sentence he gave for the shooting into an occupied vehicle. He ordered Pierce to prison for another 51 months on that charge for a total of 24 years and three months behind bars. He will have to serve the first 20 years day for day, without receiving time off for good behavior.