MIAMI (WSVN) - A judge has sentenced the man convicted of shooting and robbing a corrections officer to life in prison with a 50-year minimum, Friday.
Juan Guellmes was washing his car outside his home in Southwest Miami-Dade, in 2014, when Patrick Sullivan shot him twice and robbed him of his gold chain. Sullivan pleaded guilty to the shooting.
Guellmes, along his family and friends, appeared in court at the Metro Justice Building to ask a judge to give Sullivan the maximum sentence.
“I always thought that if anything was going to happen to me, it was going to happen while I was on duty,” Guellmes said in court. “I never thought I would be a victim, nevertheless in front of my home … For as young as he was when he committed this crime, he knew what he was doing,”
A friend of Guellmes said that his family was still in pain over the crime.
“Over a gold chain!” he said, “He’s got to worry about his sister while he’s in pain. We’re in pain.”
The prosecution played portions of the frantic 911 call from Gullmes’ wife, who said reliving the crime was difficult.
“It’s living the moment again, a moment I don’t ever want to go back to,” she said.
Sullivan’s mother asked the judge for leniency in sentencing her son.
“I’m just a mother, and I’m begging and pleading to the court and the victim to understand,” she said.
But the judge condemned Sullivan, saying that people should not have to be in fear while outside of their homes.
“So that everybody else can wash their car in their front yard without getting shot up,” the judge said.
Guellmes said he felt justice had been served.
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