JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A judge has denied defense attorneys' request for the release of a man from jail pending a new trial on accusations he shot a woman in the eye with a shotgun loaded with a pepper ball round.
"I was pretty much scared the judge would grant that motion, that 'Here, you're free. You're going home a free man," said the victim, Denisha Moxen.
Kevin Wilcoxen was convicted in July of aggravated battery on Moxen as the result of an incident inside a nightclub in December 2012.
Moxen lost her eye and is now legally blind.
"It's hard for me to sit through all of this again. I was over emotional just seeing him," said Moxen. "Words can't even express the way that I felt in there today."
The defense filed a motion for a new trial, and it was granted.
On Friday, the defense argued a motion to have Wilcoxen released on his own recognizance pending his new trial.
"After a conviction, there was a motion for a new trial. The judge, over our objection, granted motion for a new trial," said Assistant State Attorney Peter Overstreet. "We feel that was an error, so we're appealing it, which is our right."
Wilcoxen's right was to argue for his release. His lawyer, Sandra Young, failed to gain release on his own recognizance Friday afternoon and railed against the judge for ordering the same high bond that Wilcoxen faced before his first trial. Wilcoxen's bond remains at $300,000.
"I haven't heard anything that would support a $300,000 bond. The only thing I have heard was minimum mandatory," Young said.
Judge Kevin Blasz, however, ordered the same bonds that were set before the first trial, totaling $300,000 on charges of aggravated battery and shooting or throwing deadly missiles.
The State Attorney's Office filed an appeal to the ruling on a new trial. In the meantime, both sides are preparing for a status hearing in about a month.
"I'm overwhelmed with that he's not going to get out any time soon, as far as to cause harm to me again, to cause danger upon me, my family or even my children," said Moxen.