A judge levied a 50-year-prison sentence Tuesday upon the Pensacola man who shot and killed a local activist over a social media feud.
Charles Tyree Moore III, 37, was sentenced to a half century in a Florida prison after he was convicted of second-degree murder for shooting Durrell Dupree Palmer on May 23, 2022, in a Circle K parking lot in Cantonment.
"Video of the encounter was captured by the store's surveillance cameras," a previous Office of the State Attorney release said. "The video showed Durrell Palmer stop at the gas pump to initiate contact with Charles Moore, and then, after more than five minutes of intense discussion, Charles Moore suddenly pulled a handgun from his waistband and shot Durrell Palmer four times in the torso at close range."
If Moore serves his entire sentence, he will be released at 87 years old.
A 'heated' conversation turns deadly
The shooting occurred May 23, 2022, when Palmer drove into the Circle K gas station while Moore was filling his car with gas after taking his daughter to school.
Surveillance from Circle K presented by the attorneys show Palmer and Moore having a discussion at pump 20 just after 7 a.m. Witnesses described the conversation as “heated.”
After a roughly six-minute conversation, the video shows Moore reaching to his waist, pulling out a gun and firing four shots. Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Lionel Martinez confirmed there were four “defects” in Palmer’s body.
Photos of the crime scene show that Palmer also had a loaded gun, but it was located in the center console of his truck.
After the shooting, Moore drove away from the scene and called 911, giving authorities his location and turning himself in.
Charles Moore previously claimed he shot in self defense
Moore appeared before Circuit Judge John Simon in March 2023 for a stand your ground hearing, where his attorney Craig Brown argued his client's case should be dismissed based on Florida's "Stand Your Ground Law."
However, Simon disagreed.
“The defendant has no duty to retreat based on our stand your ground law; however, in this case it is relevant that (Moore) testified he was in fear of this man (and) had done things to change his routine, yet when the alleged victim pulls into the parking lot, (Moore) is the one that walks toward the car,” Simon said just before announcing his decision. “That tells the court that he was not in fear at that time and engaged in a conversation with the alleged victim in the case.”
Prior to Palmer’s death, he made various threats against Moore’s life on social media posts in April 2022, according to attorneys. Moore testified that he believed Palmer thought he was having an affair with Palmer’s wife.
“’Look man, I don’t have any problem with you or your wife,’” Moore recalled telling Palmer. “I never met (his) wife, we never had sex. She gave me her phone number, but I never used her phone number.”
Moore also said Palmer threatened to find him and his children and said he would “blow his head off.”
Durrell Palmer: Advocate, hard worker, father
After the news of Palmer's death spread, sentiments from local leaders came quickly pouring in on social media as many praised his various community projects he organized throughout the years. Some of the most notable including his Thanksgiving turkey giveaways, Easter egg hunts, job fairs and iconic Black Lives Matter mural stretched across A Street following George Floyd's death in 2020.
Palmer also received an award in 2021 from Pensacola Branch 5124 of the NAACP for "outstanding contributions and excellent service."
One of Palmer's high school teachers, Melondy Neal, said Palmer cared deeply for Pensacola while still wanting others to have a better experience than he had growing up.
"I think that when you live it, you know what needs to be done," Neal told the News Journal after his death. "He knew, during the Thanksgiving holiday, what it felt like to not have the things that people take for granted, so, he gave out food. … He knew what it felt like not to have that kind of support, not to have good role models. He was able to become that which he knew his community needed."
After making the decision to get married young before leaving for the military, Neal said Palmer's priorities shifted. He set out to "become a man" for his wife, for his children and for the people in his neighborhood.
Neal said that to his wife and children, Palmer became everything she thought he would be when he was a teenager and just "figuring it out."
"If I have one word to describe Durrell Palmer — it is a 'man.' He stood up in every way of the word," Neal said. "He was a man in his community. He was a man in his family. He died a man. And that, in itself, to me, is a legacy."
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