RUSKIN, Fla. —
On Monday afternoon, a court adjourned for the first day in the trial for a former ice cream truck driver accused of killing two men in Ruskin over a decade ago.
Opening statements in Michael Keetley’s retrial began after more than three years a judge declared a mistrial following his initial trial.
Authorities say Michael Keetley shot six people on Thanksgiving Day in 2010 outside a home in Ruskin. Two brothers who that suffered wounds from the shooting died from their injuries.
Investigators say Keetley was beaten up, shot and robbed while working from his ice cream truck and then became obsessed with revenge. Police say he was given bad information and went after the wrong men.
Keetley is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sergio Gultron and Juan Gultron — and the attempted murders of Daniel Beltran, Gonzalo Guevara, Ramon Galan Jr. and Richard Cantu.
During the first day of the murder trial, prosecutors say Keetley acted in retaliation after he was attacked, shot and robbed of $12 in his ice cream truck earlier that year.
"The defendant was obsessed with getting revenge on the individual that he thought he had robbed him," State Attorney of Florida's 13th Judicial Court Jennifer Johnson said.
But, his defense told jurors his injuries from the attack made it physically impossible for him to carry out the shooting.
"He did not do it, he could not do it," John Grant, Keetley's defense attorney, said. "He is not medically capable."
This is Keetley's second trial on murder charges. His first trial in 2020 ended in a hung jury.
Keetley has spent more than 12 years in jail, awaiting a verdict in his case and maintaining his innocence. In October, a judge denied his request for a reduced bond.
The trial is scheduled to last three weeks. If convicted Keetley could face life in prison.
To fully understand the Keetley murder trial, you’ll have to go back in time to Jan. 23, 2010. That’s the day Keetley was ambushed off Old U.S. Highway 41 while driving his ice cream truck.
He was shot five times by two masked men.
Police said he managed to drive down the road and flag down a woman who was one of his regular customers. It turned out he had been shot over just $12.
Months later, detectives say Keetley was obsessed with finding and getting revenge on the person responsible for shooting him. It was reported that Keetley was looking for a man with the street name “Kreeper.”
Around 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 25, 2010, detectives say Keetley pulled up to a house in the Ocean Mist neighborhood in Ruskin where he thought “Kreeper” lived.
Police reports stated Keetley shot six men. However, according to investigators, none of them had anything to do with Keetley being robbed and shot 10 months earlier.
Brothers Sergio and Juan Guitran died. The four other men survived.
In January 2011, Keetley pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted first-degree murder. He denied having anything to do with the shooting. He has remained in prison since.
10 Tampa Bay's Aaron Parseghian and previous reporting contributed to this report.