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Trial opens in killing over a parking spot

By Chris Tisch, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

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LARGO — Summer break was nearing an end on the hot and sticky night Jermairio Nesbitt was killed over a parking spot.

Marquis Woods, 27, went on trial Tuesday on a charge of first-degree murder and could get life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Nesbitt, a 17-year-old Boca Ciega High School student, had spent the day at the mall with friends. He bought new shoes and school clothes. The 6-foot, 240-pound boy — whom teachers considered a giant teddy bear — also went to football practice that day. He hoped to follow in his older brother's footsteps by going to college the next year to play football.

That night — July 27, 2005 — Nesbitt and three friends went to a St. Petersburg club holding a teen dance. Outside the club, Nesbitt apparently cut off another car when he pulled into a parking space. Words were exchanged. Nesbitt turned down his music, a Lil Wayne CD, and put his mother's silver Mazda into reverse.

"I'm gonna move," Nesbitt said to the people in the other car. "But you don't have to talk to me like that."

Seconds later, shots were fired. Nesbitt was hit three times and killed. The car rolled out of the parking lot, across the street and into a tree.

Woods was with a group of friends who were drinking and smoking marijuana that night as they cruised the area in search of girls. They wound up at the Club Karma, 1833 First Ave. S.

Nesbitt and his friends had been at the club earlier that night for about 20 minutes. They had left, but Nesbitt decided to come back to check out a group of girls.

"I'm not sure he wanted to go back and talk to them," his friend, Sean Cooper, said during testimony Tuesday evening. "But he probably wanted to look at them."

The group of girls also had gotten the attention of Woods and his friends. The dispute erupted, apparently, when Nesbitt pulled into a parking spot next to the girls.

Cooper, who was in the back seat of Nesbitt's car, said he saw Woods get out of the other car and lift a gun. Cooper bailed out the back door, then heard three shots.

Defense attorney Anne Borghetti told jurors that Woods shot at the car out of self-defense. She said Woods thought Nesbitt or his friends had a gun, even though they did not.

Nesbitt had no drugs or alcohol in his system, only caffeine, tests showed,