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Riviera Beach man sentenced to life for Valentine’s Day killing of girlfriend

  • June 21, 2011 at 4:24 am

By Daphne Duret

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 6:05 a.m. Thursday, June 9, 2011

Posted: 7:48 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, 2011

WEST PALM BEACH — A 29-year-old Riviera Beach man was sentenced to life plus 35 years in prison Wednesday after he was convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day after she tried to leave him.

Gibson Paul had demanded a speedy trial and originally acted as his own attorney in the three-day trial. but soon after the start of testimony in the case, Paul asked Circuit Judge Karen Miller to have Assistant Public Defender Aaron Ritchey rejoin him and take over his defense.

Jurors returned the verdict Wednesday afternoon, and Miller sentenced him to life in prison on a first-degree murder charge, 20 years on an aggravated assault charge, and 15 years each on charges of shooting into an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Paul was arrested earlier this year in Kingsport, Tenn., where he had fled after the Feb. 14 shooting.

According to prosecutors, Paul had been living with Tomicka Peterson in Riviera Beach until the day of the shooting, when she tried to end the relationship and leave their apartment with friends.

Assistant State Attorney Kirk Volker said that Paul then got out of his van with a semiautomatic pistol and eventually opened fire on the car, which contained a male driver, two female passengers, and a 3-year-old girl.

One woman was grazed by a bullet, but it was Peterson who was shot five times. she died from her injuries at the scene.

Prosecutors had once sought the death penalty against Paul, but had dropped the pursuit by the time his trial began this week.

Riviera Beach man sentenced to life for Valentine’s Day killing of girlfriend

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