FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – A man has been sentenced to life in prison over a deadly 2022 drive-by shooting in Flagler County, according to the State Attorney’s Office of Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit.
Stephen Monroe, 26, was found guilty by a Flagler County jury of first-degree murder in the shooting, which took the life of 16-year-old Noah Smith.
Smith, a Flagler Palm Coast High School student, was described in the SAO’s news release as a bystander.
Monroe and Tyrese Patterson, who is now 23, were passengers in a vehicle being driven by Devandre Williams, now 20, on the evening of Jan. 12, 2022, the release states. At the intersection of S. Anderson and E. Booe streets, Williams stopped the car as Patterson began arguing with Terrell Sampson, now 21, the SAO said.
Sampson, who was 18 years old at the time, shot at the vehicle as it began to drive off, prompting Williams to return as Patterson and Monroe fired several shots back, according to the release.
Smith was shot in the hip and later died at the hospital, the release states.
Williams in 2024 was sentenced to 55 years in prison over Smith’s death while Patterson faces 25 to 50 years in prison leading up to his sentencing hearing in March, according to the SAO.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly in 2022 linked the shooting to another that occurred several months later — killing Keymarion Hall, who was also 16 and a student at Flagler Palm Coast High — chalking it up to a “beef between two groups.”
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