Crime Scene Now Owned by Civil Litigants in Key West Murder Case

A wrongful death lawsuit in Key West has ended in a confidential settlement that granted the parents of the then-slain 21-year-old Garrett Hughes ownership of the property where his killing occurred. 

The case, orchestrated by attorney Stuart Z. Grossman, was negotiated by former Judge Michael A. Hanzman. Hughes’s parents filed the suit in March 2023 against Lloyd Preston Brewer III and related parties after Brewer fatally shot Hughes — an incident that took place just after Super Bowl LVII when Hughes was confronted while urinating behind a local establishment. Despite Brewer’s attempt to claim a stand-your-ground defense, the court rejected this claim. Brewer now faces a first-degree murder trial with an upcoming bond hearing, while Grossman, citing Brewer’s extensive family wealth and past record, opposes his release. 

The transferred property, now held by an LLC with Hughes’s parents as principals, is noted to have a tax-assessed value of $1.8 million, though comparable commercial properties in the area could fetch up to nearly $6 million, and it currently houses several rental businesses.

Full article featured in the Daily Business Review.