Michael Bell is a black man who has
been on death row in the state of Florida since 06/02/95.
Crime
He was convicted of 2 counts of
Premeditated 1st Degree Murder, committed on 12/09/93.
On December 9, 1993, appellant Michael Bell shot to death Jimmy West
and Tamecka Smith as they entered a car outside a liquor lounge in
Jacksonville. Three eyewitnesses testified regarding the murders,
which the trial court described in the sentencing order as follows. In
June 1993, Theodore Wright killed Lamar Bell in a shoot-out which was
found to be justifiable homicide committed in self-defense. Michael Bell
then swore to get revenge for the murder of his brother, Lamar Bell.
During the five months following Lamar Bell's death, Michael Bell
repeatedly told friends and relatives he planned to kill Wright. On
December 8, 1993, Michael Bell, through a girlfriend, purchased an AK-47
assault rifle, a thirty-round magazine, and 160 bullets. The next
night, Bell saw Theodore Wright's car, a yellow Plymouth. Bell left
the area and shortly returned with two friends and his rifle loaded with
thirty bullets. After a short search, he saw the yellow car in the
parking lot of a liquor lounge. Bell did not know that Wright had sold
the car to Wright's half-brother, Jimmy West, and that West had parked
it and had gone into the lounge. Bell waited in the parking lot until
West left the lounge with Tamecka Smith and another female. Bell
picked up the loaded AK-47 and approached the car as West got into the
driver's seat and Smith began to enter on the passenger's side. Bell
approached the open door on the driver's side and at point-blank range
fired twelve bullets into West and four into Smith. The other female
ducked and escaped injury. After shooting West and Smith, Bell riddled
with bullets the front of the lounge where about a dozen people were
waiting to go inside. Bell then drove to his aunt's house and said to
her, “Theodore got my brother and now I got his brother.”Appellant was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. At trial in March 1995, appellant pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense, stating that he believed West had reached for a weapon just before appellant began shooting. The defense presented no evidence or witnesses. A jury found appellant guilty of the first-degree murders of Smith and West and unanimously recommended the death penalty for both murders.
Address
You can write to this inmate
at:
Michael Bell 108426
Union CI
P.O. Box 1000
Raiford, Florida 32083
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