October 05, 2026
Jury Spares TJ Wiggins' Life in 2020 Frostproof Triple Murder
Booking photos: ABC Action News (WFTS Tampa Bay)
Jury Spares TJ Wiggins' Life in 2020 Frostproof Triple Murder
BARTOW, Fla. — The same jury that convicted Tony Lee "TJ" Wiggins last week in the 2020 shooting deaths of three men in Frostproof voted on Monday to spare his life, recommending life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty.
As the verdict was read, Wiggins, 32, cracked a rare smile.
Wiggins was found guilty on Sept. 29 of the murders of Brandon Rollins, 28, Keven Springfield, 30, and Damion Tillman, 23. The three victims had met just before 10 p.m. on July 17, 2020, on Lake Streety Road for a night of fishing. They never came home.
Prosecutors said Wiggins spotted Tillman at a Dollar General, exchanged words, then traveled with his brother and then-girlfriend to the lake — where he ambushed the men, accused Springfield of stealing a truck engine, punched him, and shot all three.
The penalty-phase jury of five men and seven women deliberated about five hours. Under Florida law, eight of 12 jurors must agree on a death sentence; fewer than eight did, so the recommendation was life without parole. Circuit Judge Jalal Harb did not formally impose sentence on Monday, but a judge cannot overturn a jury's life recommendation to impose death.
The penalty phase turned on competing portraits of Wiggins. The defense presented ten mitigating circumstances — neglect and abuse as a child, a home marked by methamphetamine use, residential instability, ADHD, a traumatic brain injury, and mental illness on both sides of his family. Defense attorney Debra Tuomey told jurors that Wiggins was sexually assaulted at age 5, was stealing food from classmates at 8, and that the state had investigated his home seven times and closed the file each time.
The state's case rested on one aggravating factor: each murder was committed alongside two other first-degree murders. Assistant State Attorney Ralph F. Guerra argued Wiggins understood exactly what he was doing. "He understood the wrongfulness of his behavior," he said.
Tuomey's closing line to the jury: "Will it show we are better than the violence we are punishing?"
Wiggins will never be free. But the families of Rollins, Springfield, and Tillman left court with something less than the maximum sentence — and the question of whether mercy or justice won the day.
Source: The Ledger — read the original report
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