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Inset: Jammacar Gayle (Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The grocery store where Gayle stabbed a woman who criticized his children in Port Charlotte, Fla. (Google Maps).
A Florida man will spend over a decade behind bars for brutally stabbing a woman who criticized his children at a supermarket.
Jammacar Rodkesh Gayle, 40, was convicted by a jury of his peers in March after a three-day trial in Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit.
On Monday, the defendant was sentenced to 12 years in prison on one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon or causing great bodily harm, the state’s attorney announced in a press release.
The knife attack occurred near the butcher’s counter at the Milan Supermarket on Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte — a large, census-designated place some 30 miles northwest of Fort Myers.
On June 9, 2023, Gayle was shopping at the store with his children and ex-wife, where they proceeded toward the meat section in the back. Later, a woman entered the store and stood in line waiting to buy meat at the counter near the family, according to an arrest affidavit issued by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.
“At some point there is a verbal altercation that ended up being over the kids’ behavior and the victim said something to [Gayle’s ex-wife] and they ended up arguing,” the affidavit reads. “Gayle stood back and did not get involved.”
The contretemps then cooled down for a few moments.
After getting half her meat order, the victim left the counter and then returned to pick up the rest, passing by Gayle’s ex-wife.
“Words are exchanged between the two females and [Gayle’s ex-wife] pushes the victim,” the affidavit goes on. “The victim pushes [Gayle’s ex-wife] back and Gayle steps up to the victim and as she turns around towards him, the victim bumps into Gayle.”
After being touched, the defendant and the victim finally got into an argument together. Next, the victim can be seen on surveillance footage pushing Gayle against the meat cooler and walking past him, according to law enforcement.
Incensed, Gayle grabbed a cast iron pan from a shelf in the store and swung it toward the victim — but his oldest daughter intercepted and took the pan from her father, the affidavit says. Undeterred, the defendant then grabbed a “packaged 8′ chef knife from the shelf,” removed the knife from its packaging, and the attack began in earnest, according to the court document.
“In the video, I observe Gayle swing, over hand twice at the victim, then twice across the victim and then twice in an over hand motion again,” the detective writes in the affidavit.
After the stabbing, Gayle fled to the parking lot, authorities noted. The victim, though severely wounded, followed after him in an attempt to photograph the license plate on his vehicle. Still brandishing the knife, Gayle threatened the woman again and then left with his family.
First responders found the victim in dire straits.
“The victim was bleeding profusely from her abdomen and head,” the affidavit reads. “While responding deputies were providing first aid to the victim, she informed deputies that she had been attacked by a black male … with a large chef knife that he got from the store shelf after a verbal altercation over the suspect’s uncontrolled kids.”
In an interview, the store owner, who witnessed the incident, said both the Gayle family and the victim were regular customers.
Ultimately, the victim had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital where she received lifesaving treatment, according to prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Gayle haphazardly tried to conceal the crime.
“He put his bloody clothes into a trash bag and then drove to New York,” the press release reads. “The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office used surveillance video to identify the make and model of the suspect’s car and were able to utilize license plate readers in the area, to pinpoint his residence and learn his identity.”
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After law enforcement executed a search warrant, the knife used in the attack and blood-spattered clothes were found still hidden in the trash at Gayle’s residence in North Port — a medium-sized city located a few miles north of Port Charlotte.
The defendant was arrested the next day in the New York City borough of Queens by U.S. Marshals and extradited back to the Sunshine State.