DAYTONA BEACH (CBSMiami/AP) — A man who kill a coworker for having an affair with his wife has been sentenced to life in prison.
A jury of seven women and five men took two hours on Thursday to find Damian DeRousha, 44, guilty of premeditated first-degree murder in the February 2021 shooting of Donald Geno, 31, at the Volusia County Fleet Maintenance Facility.
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DeRousha looked straight ahead as Circuit Judge Karen Foxman sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
DeRousha was a special projects manager for Volusia County and Geno worked as a mechanic. DeRousha’s wife, Shauna, was an inventory control specialist.
Prosecutors said on the day of the shooting, DeRousha confirmed his wife was having an affair with Geno.
Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak told jurors in his closing argument this was not a case of self-defense. Instead, it was an “unprovoked cowardly murder.”
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DeRousha sat in his pickup for 40 minutes at a nearby gas station before driving to the facility and confronting Geno, Urbanak said.
“The defendant doesn’t hesitate when he walks through that gate,” Urbanak said. “He’s like a shark in the water going after his prey. He walks straight to that bay where he knows Donald Geno will be.”
DeRousha fired eight times, before dropping the empty 9 mm Walther pistol to the ground next to the dying Geno.
While DeRousha testified that Geno bowed up, raised his voice, threw a punch and a wrench, two nearby coworkers did not hear or see anything out of the ordinary until DeRousha fired, Urbanak said.
DeRousha’s public defender, Matt Metz, said they were in a large building with people using power tools, which is why no one heard the commotion before the shooting.
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