Orlando, Florida: Halloween Shooter Jaylen Edgar Gets Life in Prison for 2024 Downtown Killings

Jaylen Edgar, the gunman who killed two people and wounded seven others during Halloween celebrations in downtown Orlando in 2024, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison, closing the trial court case against the teenager who opened fire into a crowded street near Orange Avenue.

Before handing down the sentence, Circuit Judge Keith Carsten addressed Edgar directly. "Nearly two years ago today, you terrorized this city," Carsten said, according to a courtroom report published by the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday.

Two consecutive life sentences

Carsten ordered Edgar to serve two consecutive life sentences for the murders of Tyrek Hill, 25, and Timothy Schmidt Jr., 19, a University of Central Florida student, and a separate concurrent life sentence for the attempted murders. Edgar, who was 17 at the time of the shooting and is now 19, was not eligible for the death penalty because of his age. The Tampa Bay Times reported that even if Edgar qualifies for the earliest possible parole, he likely will not be released until he is 92. FOX 35 Orlando reported that Edgar has 30 days to appeal the sentence and that his attorney said he will appeal.

A Halloween night downtown

The shooting happened on November 1, 2024, as tens of thousands of people in costumes filled downtown Orlando for Halloween. According to the courtroom account, Edgar met friends and walked through the area, and officers ordered him off a firehouse stretcher he had climbed onto. He then walked past Hill, turned around and shot him in the head from point blank range. Edgar ran into a nearby alley and came out on Orange Avenue near Washington Street, steps from the Wall Street Orlando complex. After a brief confrontation as he pushed through the crowd, he shot Schmidt in the chest and fired several more shots as he ran. Orlando police captured him shortly afterward. No motive for the shooting has ever been disclosed.

The trial and the hearing

A jury convicted Edgar in August of two counts of first degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors argued at trial that Edgar intended to kill people when he went downtown carrying a gun. His defense did not dispute that he fired the shots, but argued that prosecutors had not proved the killings were premeditated. Several people who were wounded in the shooting testified during the trial.

At Tuesday's sentencing hearing, the court heard emotional testimony from Hill's mother, Schmidt's father and a surviving victim. Edgar spoke in court for the first time since the trial. He apologized to the families, said he had been drinking and using drugs with friends before going downtown that night, and said he blacked out and came to in the back of a squad car. Assistant State Attorney Frank George challenged that account in court. "Sir, you put a gun to a man's head less than five inches away and shot him," George said. "What are they supposed to think, that it was an accident?"

Schmidt's father, Timothy Schmidt Sr., told the court his son was not a case number or a statistic. With the life sentences imposed and an appeal expected, the sentencing ends the trial court phase of a case that began on one of the busiest nights of the year in downtown Orlando.