TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After waiting on an appeal in the 2011 shooting death of an FSU student, a new judge has been assigned to the case after the State Attorney's Office felt that the original judge was becoming an advocate for the shooter.
In January 2011, Evan Wilhelm was tried and convicted of manslaughter in the death of 20-year-old Ashley Cowie at an FSU fraternity house.
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Wilhelm told police he was showing off a new light on top of his semi-automatic rifle when it went off, shooting and killing Cowie.
Cowie was a 2009 graduate of St. Johns County Day School where she was crowned homecoming queen. She also had a twin sister who was also enrolled at FSU.
A year after the incident Wilhelm was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 10 years of probation.
The appeal on Wilhelm's behalf has been on hold for the past few months after the judge for the case said that 20 years in prison was too long of a punishment for the defendant.
Since then the State Attorney's Office filed a motion to recuse or disqualify the judge. The judge denied the motion, but the First District Court of Appeal on Wednesday granted a prosecution motion to force the trial judge to be disqualified and so a new judge will be appointed to preside over post-sentencing motions.
"The reason the State Attorney's Office filed a motion to disqualify was the judge said that he was going to resentence the defendant to a term that was less than 20 years. He thought 20 years was too much. So the state attorney thought the judge had become an advocate for the defendant and moved to disqualify him," News4Jax attorney Ed Birk explained. "That judge denied the motion to disqualify or the motion to recuse and the state appealed, and that's what Wednesday's order was about. So there will be a new judge that will be assigned to the case."
Birk said it's unusual for the State Attorney's Office to file a motion against a judge but since they felt it was biased they did what they believed was fair.