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Staff Report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kenyata Malique McCoy, 21, has received a sentence of one year in the Alachua County Jail and two years of probation after pleading nolo contendere to possessing a firearm as an adjudicated delinquent. Initially, he faced charges of having a firearm on school grounds and grand theft of a firearm.
Authorities apprehended McCoy on November 8, 2025, after a stolen gun was discovered in a men’s restroom on the west side of the Broward Dining Facility at the University of Florida. The firearm, taken from an unattended vehicle in Gainesville back in June 2020, linked back to McCoy, who had been arrested as a juvenile in July 2020 for possessing a stolen vehicle and participating in a series of car break-ins.
During his arrest in November, McCoy was already part of a pre-trial diversion program stemming from an April 2025 incident involving loitering and resisting an officer without violence. The November arrest led to the revocation of this agreement, and by January 2026, McCoy had entered a plea of nolo contendere to those charges. Judge Susan Miller-Jones decided against a formal guilty verdict, imposing a $326 fine instead, which McCoy has begun to pay off.
On April 28, McCoy agreed to a plea of nolo contendere for possessing a firearm as an adjudicated delinquent, with the plea document highlighting a potential maximum sentence of 15 years for this offense. However, as part of the plea deal, the grand theft charge was dropped. Judge James Colaw withheld a formal guilty ruling and sentenced McCoy to 364 days in jail, followed by probation for two years.