Call likely in fatal shooting outside strip club on Thanksgiving 2019

Lina Portman2 weeks ago

0 2 minutes read

Antoine Newton claims the courts violated his constitutional rights during his trial for the death of Fadson Excellent and the injury of Ernest Taylor.

Antoine Newton says the courts didn't let him face his accuser during his trials for first-degree murder and aggravated battery.
The shooting took place outside the Rose Gentlemen's Club on Thanksgiving morning in 2019.
Newton is awaiting a retrial on murder charges after a jury failed to reach a consensus last year.

WEST PALM BEACH — A judge sentenced a Boynton Beach area man to 25 years in prison in a 2019 shooting outside a strip club that killed one man and injured another.

Circuit Judge Cymonie Rowe on Friday, June 14, handed down the sentence against Antoine Newton, convicted at his trial last August of aggravated battery with a firearm during the Thanksgiving morning altercation that injured Ernest Taylor .

A second charge against Newton of first-degree murder in the death of Fadson Excellent, 29, remains undecided after jurors failed to reach a consensus, prompting Rowe to declare a mistrial on that charge.

Defense: Antoine Newton acted in self-defense; new murder trial pending

State prosecutors alleged that Newton, now 41, killed Excellent and injured Taylor on the morning of Nov. 28, 2019, when he shot them during a fight in the parking lot of Rose Gentleman's Club, just beyond the village limits of Palm Springs. at Purdy Lane and Military Trail.

Newton's lawyers argued that he shot Excellent and Taylor in self-defense while accidentally shooting a friend, Bataskia Marzette, in the process. Prosecutors decided not to pursue charges related to Marzette's injury.

Defense attorney Scott Skier noted tension between the men, saying Excellent had previously threatened Marzette with a gun at the same club.

At Friday's hearing, Rowe set a July 30 hearing for the still-pending murder charge.

Newton told the court he intended to appeal the aggravated battery conviction, saying it did not protect his Sixth Amendment right to face his accuser, since Taylor did not testify during the trial.

“I didn't go out to hurt (anyone). It was self-defense,” Newtown told the court, saying Taylor appeared to be reaching for a gun.

Rowe credited Newton with four years and six months served in the Palm Beach County jail.

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for the Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help us support our work: Subscribe today.

Antoine Newton claims the courts violated his constitutional rights during his trial for the death of Fadson Excellent and the injury of Ernest Taylor.

Defense: Antoine Newton acted in self-defense; new murder trial pending

Lina Portman

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