ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A former St. Augustine High School football standout who initially pleaded guilty to a 2020 deadly double shooting in a condo complex parking lot later withdrew his plea and will now face trial, starting with jury selection Monday.
Anfernee Wilson, who was 19 when he was first charged in the double homicide in October 2020, petitioned last October to change his plea, which he made as part of a deal that would have sentenced him to 45 years in prison.
READ: Anfernee Wilson’s letter to judge to withdraw plea
Wilson’s request was granted in April, setting up a double murder trial for the deaths of high school junior Sydnie Rounsville, 16, and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Kyle Stein.
The two were critically wounded in a double shooting in the parking lot of Florida Club Condominiums near Florida Club Boulevard, which is off State Road 16 in St. Augustine. They later died at local hospitals after witnesses at the scene tried to save them.
Sydnie’s mother, Shalene Rounsville, said she was OK with the plea deal Wilson initially accepted.
“I was at peace with what the plea was going to be, with the sentence that they came to us with,” she said. “This has really tested my faith. I don’t think about him too much. He’s inconsequential to me. I just want him to be where he is and stay there for the rest of his life. That’s what I want.”
Deputies said multiple witnesses identified Wilson as the shooter who ran from the parking lot. He was found less than an hour after the shooting in a retention pond about a mile away near Scheidel Way and North St. Johns Street, deputies said.
Wilson was later charged with first-degree murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle and robbery with a firearm. Shalene Rounsville said Wilson and her daughter knew each from school.
“It’s not lost on me that three young adults have lost their lives. Not just Kyle and Sydnie, but he has too. That’s not lost on me,” Rounsville said.
According to Wilson’s arrest report, witnesses told detectives that a man with a handgun was seen chasing a black pickup that was speeding through the parking lot at the condo complex. They said the truck changed direction and started driving at the man with the gun before it crashed into a parked vehicle.
Witnesses said after the crash, the man fired four to six shots into the truck, then removed some items from the truck’s cab and ran away toward a nearby golf course.
Before the victims were taken from the scene, several witnesses tried to provide emergency aid, and one of the victims told those witnesses the shooter’s name was Anfernee, deputies said.
Shalene Rounsville said she learned of the shooting, which took place in the parking lot of her condo complex, as she and her boyfriend were returning from a Taco Tuesday happy hour drink together.
She said she felt pure panic when one of her boyfriend’s friends called with the news that her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend had been shot. She hasn’t spoken publicly about it until now, but she said she wants people to remember Sydnie and Kyle.
“I just feel like their lives matter and want people not to forget what happened to them,” Shalene said. “In October it will be three years.”
She said she thought her daughter was a follower more than a leader until friends shared stories with her after Sydnie’s death, describing how she would stick up for those who were being bullied.
“She was larger than life, biggest heart in the whole world, very stubborn like most of us women in my family,” Shalene said, cracking a smile as she remembered her daughter. “I was proud of her. I hope she knows how much I love her. I would take her place if I could.”
A GoFundMe account benefiting Shalene Rounsville has raised more than $14,500.
Shalene said she’s left some of her daughter’s ashes at Kyle’s gravesite. The rest she plans to scatter at the mountains and the beach -- two of Sydnie’s favorite places.
But she said she won’t do that until after the trial for Sydnie’s accused killer is over.