By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: March 24, 2008

The man accused of shooting a store clerk in the face during an armed robbery last year in Marianna has entered a plea in the case, while three co-defendants in the case await further court action.

On Monday, the day he was supposed to stand trial, Kyle Merritt pled no contest to charges of armed robbery and attempted first degree murder with a firearm, according to Assistant State Attorney Mark Sims.

The robbery took place on June 11 2007 at the Handi Mart BP station on Lafayette St.

A cash drawer and money was taken from the store, and a customer was also robbed in the incident. That customer tended to the injured clerk until paramedics arrived.

Merritt was identified two days later as the man suspected of shooting clerk Tyler Bradford Daniels.  Daniels was rushed to a critical care unit after the hold-up. According to the victim’s mother, who spoke to the Floridan shortly after the shooting, the bullet exited one-quarter from his carotid artery, the major pipeline pumping blood to the head and neck.

Shortly after the robbery, police found the cash drawer and most of the money that was taken in the hold-up, along with a semi-automatic handgun believed to have been used in the crime.  The items were found near the railroad tracks south of the store, according to police reports at the time.
Merritt faces a mandatory 25-year prison sentence in the penalty phase, which is scheduled for April 22 at 1:30 p.m.

Merritt, now 18, was 17 when he was arrested on the charges.

Three other men, Deondre Baker, Tavis Barnes and Yesin McCoy are charged with robbery in the case.
No firm court date has been set in their cases.