A man is being tried for the death sentence because he is accused of hitting and killing his brother with his car on purpose, just days after his nephew was shot and killed.
The death of Tyree Jamal Gland’s brother Taiwan Gland Sr., 35, led to his arrest on February 29 by police in St. Petersburg on a charge of second-degree murder. He was charged with first-degree murder by a grand jury on April 5.
Cops say Tyree Gland hit Gland Sr. with a Cadillac ATS on Seventh Avenue South near 12th Street early in the morning on February 26. He then drove back and hit him again before leaving the scene of the crime.
Florida law says that there must be aggravating reasons in a murder case for the death penalty to be applied. The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office said in a filing that the killing was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.”
The paper also says that prosecutors can show beyond a reasonable doubt that Tyree Gland has been convicted of a capital felony before.
In an interview on Friday, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said that Tyree Gland should be put to death because he has been convicted of a drive-by shooting before and the current charges against him are very dangerous.
Another thing Bartlett said was more clear about what made the Gland brothers fight right before the killing.
That night, the brothers went to a funeral in the same area for Taiwan Gland Jr., Gland Sr.’s 18-year-old son, who had been shot and killed a few blocks away at an apartment complex. Police in St. Petersburg have not yet made any arrests in the case. If you know anything, please call 727-893-7780 or text “SPPD” and your tip to 847-411.
Bartlett said that Tyree Gland said something that made it sound like Gland Sr. was a bad dad, which led to the death of his son. Gland Sr. got mad about that and left. Bartlett said that Tyree Gland then got in his Cadillac, drove to find his brother, ran over him, and then went back and did it again.
Police say that surveillance video of the first hit-and-run shows Gland Sr. lying on the ground with his arms raised, trying to get out of the way when the Cadillac hits him again, Bartlett said. Once the Cadillac hit a speed bump, it pulled Gland Sr. about 140 feet before setting him free.
“I guess Tyree Gland didn’t learn anything after getting out of jail,” Bartlett said. But 12 people in our society should get together and decide if he is guilty of murder in the first degree and, if he is, if he should be put to death.
Tyree Gland got out of state jail on December 6 after about 15 years for killing Deandre Brown, 15, in a drive-by shooting in St. Petersburg in 2007. Gland was arrested for the first time when he was 17. He was found guilty twice of second-degree murder and given a life sentence, but both sentences were later overturned.
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