Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.

Brandon man acquitted of murder but gets 15 years for violating probation

TAMPA — A Brandon man who killed two men at a Clair-Mel gas station in 2017 was acquitted of murder last week after a jury found he fired the shots in self-defense. It was at least the fourth Hillsborough murder case this year that has ended in favor of the defendant. The verdict came more than four years after Raynald Joseph Lamothe, now 35, shot the men on Sept. 12, 2017, as they tried to …