JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The man sent to prison for life for killing 20-year-old Kalil McCoy in 2011 is back in Jacksonville to stand trial for a second time after an appeals court threw out his first conviction. The victim's mother said the first time took an emotional toll on her, and she's worried about going through that stress again.
Roebuck said she had a nervous breakdown and tried to commit suicide during the first trial. She said she was just getting her life back on the right track when she got the news that Fredrick Wade's conviction was overturned because the judge failed to explain the possibility of a lesser manslaughter charge during jury instructions.
"I tried to commit suicide three times," said Lynnette Roebuck. "I didn't want to live, because Kalil was my best friend."
According to police, Wade and three other friends from Jackson High School were with McCoy riding around in Wade's SUV in June 2011 when there was an argument. Wade was accused of pulling out a handgun and pointing in her direction. Wade claimed in the jostling, it discharged, hitting her in the head.
Prosecutors said the four men dumped her body in a field. The other three in the car pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and were sentenced to prison time.
Wade was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison. That sentence was successfully appealed, but Wade was resentenced to life.
In Roebuck's house, there are pictures of McCoy everywhere you look.
"I had to deal with regret, guilt," Roebuck said. "I had to deal with emotions, up and down, just everywhere, I just don't want to have to go through this all over again."
Roebuck feels that the overturned conviction has put her and her family back at square one.
"What am I supposed to do? Continue to have faith in something that every time it continues to fail me," Roebuck said. "I'm not trying to be negative here, but I'm trying to feel positive, totally positive about the situation."
Roebuck says she's disappointed she hasn't heard details from the state attorney's office about when Wade's retrial may start and what she should expect. She says she's also deeply disturbed by posts on Wade's family's Facebook page which express excitement that he might one day be free.
'You think you'll walk free after killing my daughter, because she wouldn't roll up her window?" Roebuck said of that attitude. "So I don't know why you get this false sense of hope that he's going to be free, I don't understand why this is happening."