Gainesville man sentenced to life in prison after jury conviction for setting up home invasion robbery that resulted in D’halani Armstrong’s murder

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Patrick Owen Watson, 52, was sentenced yesterday to two consecutive life sentences, followed by two consecutive 15-year sentences, after a jury found him guilty of arranging the home invasion robbery that resulted in the shooting death of D’halani Armstrong on July 19, 2022.

Watson was originally arrested on August 22, 2022, and has remained in the Alachua County Jail since that date.

The original incident

On July 19, 2022, Jason Travis Ward kicked in the door of the house, carrying a firearm, and Alderious Jerrad White entered the house after the door was kicked down, also carrying a firearm. Once inside, White encountered Armstrong and shot her; she died as a result of the gunshot wound. Once inside, Ward held two residents of the house, who had been sleeping in a bedroom, at gunpoint. One of those residents wrestled a gun away from Ward, and the gun went off, striking Ward.

Tiara Lanae Luckie drove White and Ward to the home. After Ward was shot, surveillance video showed him running out of the house from a side door, holding his torso; he then got into Luckie’s car, and she drove him, at his request, to the house of his cousin, where she knocked on the door and told the cousin that Ward had been shot. Ward got into his cousin’s car, and she drove him to the hospital, where the emergency room contacted law enforcement to report a gunshot wound victim. After Ward was shot, White ran out of the front door, dropping a gun along the way. A resident of the home shot White in the front yard with Ward’s gun, then confronted White as he sat in the middle of the road. White was arrested at the scene and treated for his gunshot wound.

Two other residents of the home, including a 10-year-old child, hid in a bathtub during the incident.

Verdict and sentence for Watson

Yesterday, an Alachua County jury found Watson guilty of first-degree felony murder, armed burglary of an occupied dwelling, solicitation to commit armed burglary, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Judge Robert Groeb sentenced Watson to a natural life sentence for the murder charge, followed by a life sentence for armed burglary, 15 years for solicitation to commit armed burglary, and 15 years for the firearm possession charge; all sentences run consecutively.

Sentences for the other defendants

Luckie was sentenced to 15 years of probation and residential mental health treatment after pleading nolo contendere to a charge of accessory after the fact to second-degree murder.

Ward was sentenced to 30 years in state prison after entering a plea of nolo contendere to second-degree murder with a firearm (a lesser included offense), armed burglary, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; he also agreed to testify truthfully against the other defendants as a condition of his plea agreement.

White was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading nolo contendere to homicide and armed burglary .