ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A former St. Augustine High School football standout was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder Thursday in a 2020 double shooting that left a 16-year-old schoolmate and her 21-year-old boyfriend dead.
Anfernee Wilson, who was 19 when he was first charged, 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.
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 argued he fired into the truck because he was in fear for his life.
Immediately following the guilty verdict Thursday, Wilson was sentenced to life in prison.
Rounsville’s grandmother addressed the court before the sentence was handed down by Judge R. Lee Smith.
“You know what I hate Anfernee, you didn’t take the generous offer of my daughter and Kyle’s mother,” Rounsville’s grandmother said. “I hate you’re going to be in jail for the rest of your life, but we have to be accountable. I know if it had been the other way around and had it been Sydnie pointing a gun at you and killing you, I would want her to be accountable. You have to be accountable. I don’t care what age you are. No one has a right to take somebody else’s life...I know I’ll see her again and I hope and pray that you get right with God and you ask for forgiveness and you can go and see Sydnie and Kyle someday and tell them you’re sorry. I hope you can tell us you’re sorry cause we’re all God’s children and he loves us all no matter what. he loved you that day just as much as he loves Sydnie and Kyle.”
“I’m sorry to the family..and I do apologize, I really do,” said Wilson’s sister Kevra Streeter. “And to my brother Anfernee, we love you, we love and will always love you, and we forgive you for everything that happened.”
The jury heard from Wilson when he testified on Wednesday, but they will never know Rounsville and Stein’s side of the story.
“Whatever mistakes you think they made, they paid for it with their life,” a state prosecutor said Thursday during their closing argument.
It was a drug deal that turned tragic.
The state attorney said the case is about accountability and Wilson knew what he was doing.
“Their life was not worth $650, because he wanted that money back, he took their life,” the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor’s closing argument reiterated that Wilson arranged to buy a quarter-pound of cannabis. In a message to Wilson from Rounsville she said “I trust you, for real.”
When Wilson gave Stein the money for the drugs, something happened that caused an argument. Wilson said the quality of the drug was poor so he asked for his money back. Witnesses said they then saw Wilson chasing after the truck with a gun before the truck crashed. Then, witnesses said, Wilson walked up and shot the young couple, grabbed the money and weed and ran off.
The defense had the jury focus on why Wilson shot at them.
“He opened fire only because the truck was coming directly at him at a fast rate of speed and he acted in self-defense,” the defense attorney said.
Wilson ran from the scene and left behind a trail of evidence that led deputies to his location. Money, his clothes, his shoe, and a phone were all found on his getaway path. 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.
He was seen on camera minutes after the shooting behind a warehouse.
Wilson’s attorney argued the state brought forth evidence but no evidence of what led up to the shooting.
The state said Wilson’s own admission on the stand, that he fired four shots into the truck, was enough.
“‘Because I just committed a crime.’ Out of everything he said, no truer words could be spoken. Self-defense is not a crime. But premeditatedly shooting someone is a crime,” the prosecutor said.
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.
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.
She said she will do that now that the trial is over.
