ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A former St. Augustine High School football standout charged with two counts of first-degree murder in a 2020 double shooting that left a 16-year-old schoolmate and her 21-year-old boyfriend dead hopes to convince a jury he was acting in self-defense.
Anfernee Wilson, who was 19 when he was first charged in the double homicide, initially pleaded guilty to the deaths of Sydnie Rounsville, 16, and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Kyle Stein. They were fatally shot in a condo complex parking lot in October 2020.
The plea deal Wilson had agreed to would have sentenced him to 45 years in prison, an outcome Rounsville’s mother told News4JAX she “was at peace with.”
But Wilson petitioned last October to change his plea -- a request that was granted in April, setting up a double murder trial this week in which Wilson’s attorneys are arguing he fired into the truck in fear for his life.
READ: Anfernee Wilson’s letter to judge to withdraw plea
Prosecutors, however, have a different perspective, saying it was Wilson who chased Stein and Rounsville in the truck before opening fire -- giving him plenty of time to think about what he was doing.
In addition to the two murder charges, Wilson is also charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle and robbery with a firearm.
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 of Florida Club Condominiums near Florida Club Boulevard, which is off State Road 16 in St. Augustine. They said the truck changed direction and started driving at the man with the gun before it crashed into a parked vehicle.
“Mr. Wilson met with Kyle Stein and Sydnie to purchase marijuana. Mr. Wilson gave them money but then wanted the money back because of the poor quality of the marijuana being given to him. They said no and an argument ensued,” defense attorney Daniel Hernandez said during opening statements Tuesday.
But when Hernandez questioned a witness about whether the truck was chasing Wilson and trying to run him over, the witness said no.
At the time of the shooting, witnesses told police that after the truck crashed in the parking lot, the man, later identified by police as Wilson, 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.
“When he was chasing them, he had the opportunity to think about what he was about to do. After Kyle crashed his truck, he didn’t, and that’s called premeditated first-degree murder,” State Attorney Kenneth Johnson said. “Then when he used that force and went inside their vehicle and stole money, a cellphone and marijuana, that’s a robbery and that’s called first-degree felony murder.”
Deputies said multiple witnesses identified Wilson as the shooter who ran from the parking lot.
And before she was taken from the scene, Sydnie pointed the finger at him, too.
Registered Nurse Tara Shields and neighbor Faye Kenney testified Tuesday about being on the scene in October 2020 and trying to save Sydnie. Her family listened in tears to the testimony.
The teen asked the women if she was going to die.
“We’re trying to keep her alive and alert,” Shields said.
And they asked who shot her.
“She said, ‘Anfernee. Anfernee,’” Kenney recalled on the stand. “We said, ‘Anthony?’ And she said, ‘No, Anfernee.’”
Despite the efforts of good Samaritans and first responders, Sydnie and Kyle later died at local hospitals.
Wilson 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.
The state said Tuesday that Wilson left a trail of money, clothes and drugs from where he shot the couple to the pond where he was found hiding. Witnesses also took pictures of him running through the neighborhood.
Shalene Rounsville said Wilson and her daughter knew each other 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.
Shalene said it’s not fair that she never got to see her daughter graduate and that Sydnie will never get married or have children. She said Sydnie’s brother recently had a child, and Sydnie would have loved being an aunt.
Her brother named the child after Sydnie.
“This has really tested my faith,” Shalene Rounsville said. “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.”
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.