Two Deaths, Two Cases, One Message: St. Lucie Justice System Grinds Forward

Two families on the Treasure Coast got answers this week. Neither answer is easy to live with.

On Friday, a St. Lucie County jury convicted Kemmye Riccardo Parson, 31, of Fort Pierce, on charges of second-degree felony murder, attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The verdict closes a chapter — but not the full story — of the Jan. 16, 2023, mass shooting at Ilous Ellis Park in Fort Pierce, where Nikkitia Bryant, a 29-year-old mother, was killed and seven others were wounded during a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration.

On Wednesday, Port St. Lucie police arrested Marc Swantic, 42, in connection with the Halloween 2024 death of Victor Santiago. According to a probable cause affidavit, Santiago was riding a motorized scooter through a marked crosswalk on Southeast Crosstown Parkway near Southeast Sandia Drive at 5:45 a.m. on Oct. 31 when he was struck and killed by Swantic's black Mercedes-Benz. Swantic faces charges of vehicular manslaughter and DUI manslaughter.

The two cases are different in almost every detail. But together, they tell a single story about what justice looks like in St. Lucie County: slow, incomplete, and hard-won.

Start with Parson. Prosecutors acknowledged he did not pull the trigger that killed Bryant. He participated in the fight that set the shooting in motion — a legal distinction that matters but may feel thin to Bryant's mother, Nikkiti White, who sat through autopsy photos she had never seen before. Parson was arrested in Tampa two months after the shooting. Sentencing is scheduled for March 24. He faces life in prison.

White told WPTV the trial "brings it all back up." She is also urging investigators to keep digging. The shooter or shooters who directly killed her daughter have not been publicly charged.

The case has also exposed institutional failures that a guilty verdict does nothing to fix. Bryant's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against St. Lucie County, the city of Fort Pierce, former Sheriff Keith Pearson, and event organizers. The lawsuit alleges the event permit required private security — and that organizers canceled the security contract anyway. It further alleges that the sheriff's office knew the law enforcement detail had been canceled and told no one.

St. Lucie County Commissioner Cathy Townsend confirmed to WPTV that the sheriff's office knew the security detail had been canceled but did not notify the county. "There's better communication now," Townsend said.

White's response: "It took her to die to do what should have been done."

The Swantic case carries its own grim arithmetic. Blood toxicology results from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, received Jan. 30, show Swantic had methadone, alprazolam, diazepam, and nordiazepam in his system at the time of the crash. A certified drug recognition evaluator concluded he was not safe to drive.

The car's own electronic data recorder told the rest. Swantic's Mercedes was traveling 59 mph five seconds before impact — in a posted 45 mph zone. He accelerated. At impact the vehicle was doing 72 mph. The gas pedal was pressed to 98 percent.

A court-authorized search of the car on Nov. 3 turned up a locked box in the trunk containing 13 doses of methadone — one empty — along with multiple other prescription medications and a case of Narcan.

Two cases. Two families still waiting for something that looks like closure. The system moved. Whether it moved fast enough, or far enough, is a question both families are still asking.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.