Jurors find Miami Gardens man, former Iraq war vet, not guilty of trying to kill girlfriend

Miami Herald

14-02-2025

A Miami Gardens man who admitted to shooting his girlfriend at least five times in the legs and stomach was found not guilty by jurors Friday after testifying that he believed she was reaching for a gun inside a purse on the couch next to her.
Jurors determined that Gayle Blount, 55, was not guilty of attempted murder a day after a prosecutor admitted she erred in telling jurors there was no purse on the couch next to Bridget Knighton when she was shot four years ago.
That there was no gun inside Knighton's purse didn't seem to matter to jurors who accepted Blount's testimony that he fired his weapon in self-defense. During closing arguments Thursday, defense attorneys showed blown up still frames of the purse on the couch, amplifying the prosecutor's error.
'The defendant is to be released immediately,' Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ellen Sue Venzer said after the verdict was read, prompting a quick shout of joy in the courtroom.
If not for a decision by the judge earlier in the week, Blount would likely have been sent to prison for two decades.
Before the trial began, the Iraqi war veteran had accepted an offer from the state to serve 20 years in prison. But Judge Venzer vacated Blount's guilty plea and ordered a trial. She said she was unaware of the amount of violence in the relationship and some of the elements of the shooting.
Knighton told investigators the couple had been in a rocky and often abusive relationship almost since it began in 2017. She said that no matter where she went, Blount was able to find her. She said Blount even insisted on sleeping with an AR-15 between them in bed.
And she said the only reason she stayed with him was because he threatened to harm her grandchildren. She argued on the stand that she feared Blount would kill her.
Blount also took the stand during trial. He testified that Knighton repeatedly threatened him. She called police several times on the day she was shot in May of 2021. Police said they heard the gunfire as they were arriving and found Knighton shot in the legs and stomach on a floor in the apartment.
Jurors were told the shooting happened the day after the couple had a blowout argument about Blount playing the television too loud as Knighton tried to sleep.
'I was just trying to stop a threat,' Blount told jurors while testifying, according to WTVJ Channel 6.