A 19-year-old Palm Bay teen will spend at least the next two decades of his life in state prison after being found guilty of walking up to a car in 2022 and shooting another teen in the neck and face, court records show.
Orlando Colbert-McGlon, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last week for attempted first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a juvenile and aggravated battery to be followed by five years of probation. It stemmed from the incident that left a 17-year-old wounded, and happened as a spate of teen-related shootings took place over several months in south Brevard.
The victim — shot three times — was dropped off at a fire station by his friends, who then sped off, police reported. The teen survived the December 2022 attack at Nungesser Park but underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries. FLORIDA TODAY is not identifying the victim.
Colbert-McGlon will be credited with three years’ time served, meaning he could be released in 22 years, court records show.
Palm Bay police detectives said the pair met over Snapchat, communicating that Colbert-McGlon had vape pens — a hot commodity on the streets — to sell.
A motive in the case was not clearly established, though detectives suspect that a drug-debt owed by an unidentified third party may have led to Colbert-McGlon being hired to kill the victim and erase the debt, records show. It was not immediately clear if the person who contracted the attack had been identified by police.
“It was just senseless,” said Assistant State Attorney Francis DeMuro in a statement released on the case. DeMuro added that Colbert-McGlon decided to use a firearm to commit a violent, adult crime and “now has destroyed his life,” he said.
Evidence in the September trial included testimony from the victim, along with bullet casings and a shirt caked with dried blood. The victim, who now lives in the northeast U.S., did not return for last week’s sentencing, prosecutors said.
Colbet-McGlon will be turned over to the Department of Corrections after spending three years in the Brevard County Jail Complex.
In December 2024, Colbert-McGlon was found in possession of a “paintball sock: repurposed to be used as a bludgeoning weapon. The sock was tied off at each end and contained hardened balls of peeled paint, court records show. He later pled no contest to the charge.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. X/Twitter: @JDGallop.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Palm Bay teen sentenced to 25 years in prison for 2022 shooting
Reporting by J.D. Gallop, Florida Today / Florida Today
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