John DeRossett, once charged with trying to kill three Brevard County sheriff’s deputies, has been freed under Florida’s “stand your ground law.”
An appeals court has ruled DeRossett was standing his ground when he had a furious shootout with the deputies in August of 2015.
DeRossett has been released from jail and has reunited with family members. He was prosecuted for attempted murder after the shooting of Brevard County Deputy Sheriff Casey Smith.
Smith narrowly avoided death, and was off duty for a year.
Smith was part of a three-man undercover team that appeals judges said went into DeRossett’s Port St. John house and tried to arrest his niece for prostitution.
The judges said prosecutors did not prove that DeRossett should have known they were law enforcement officers.
DeRossett claimed during a “stand your ground” hearing that he thought the deputies who had come to his Port St. John house to arrest his niece were kidnappers.
*story by WESH News