A defense team is fighting the admission of evidence of a prior weapons incident in the trial of a father charged in the death of his son.
Christopher Wyatt, 32, is facing a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child under the age of 16. His 12-year-old son Jeramyah Wyatt was fatally wounded Aug. 31 at the family home at 5445 Singletary Road in Lady Lake.
Wyatt told investigators that he, his wife and their children watched a movie the night of Aug. 30 and they all fell asleep in the master bedroom. The next morning, Wyatt and his wife carried their one-month-old child downstairs, leaving Jeramyah and his 7-year-old and 10-year-old sisters alone in the master bedroom with a loaded Diamondback assault rifle, stored without a case under the bed.
The parents heard a loud bang followed by the 10-year-old screaming. Wyatt ran upstairs and discovered his son had been fatally shot in the head. EMS personnel arrived on the scene and determined Jeramyah had died as a result of the gunshot wound.
The prosecution is hoping to introduce as evidence an incident 10 months earlier in which Jeramyah and the other children were home alone and thought they heard a noise. Jeramyah armed himself with his father’s shotgun and went to investigate the noise, according to a motion filed in Lake County Court by the prosecutor’s office. Law enforcement and the Department of Children and Families were called to investigate and Wyatt and the children claimed that Jeramyah did not use the shotgun, but had retrieved a BB gun. The investigation was closed, but Wyatt was counseled on the proper storage of firearms. He signed a form acknowledging that the safe storage of firearms is required by Florida law.
However, Wyatt’s legal defense team wants this information excluded from an upcoming trial.
“Because there was no previous incident of neglect, any previous admonitions and/or advisements about the storage of firearms is irrelevant,” attorney Michael LaFay wrote in an opposing motion. “In the event that a sufficiently similar nexus is established between the uncharged and the charges offenses, said evidence would became a feature of the case and should therefore be excluded.”
A negotiating conference is set for Jan. 4. in Wyatt’s case. He remains free on $100,000 bond.