A 27-year-old man who fatally shot a father as he tried to protect his one-year-old son has been sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Tamarius Blair Davis was sentenced on Thursday for the August 24, 2021, murder of 21-year-old Dustin Wakefield, who was eating with his family during a vacation in Miami.
Davis must serve at least 25 years before becoming eligible for parole. He will receive credit for the five years he has already spent in custody, the Miami Herald reported.
Davis pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder, attempted murder and child abuse charges stemming from the shooting. Witnesses said he approached Wakefield’s family, aimed a pistol at the toddler and declared: “It’s time to die.”
Before Davis could shoot at the child, Wakefield moved in front of his son. He was struck five times, including at least once in the head.
Video recorded moments after the gunfire captured people screaming outside the oceanside La Cerveceria restaurant. One witness said Davis appeared to dance over the dying father’s body.
Davis later told police he had been high on mushrooms and had “randomly chosen” Wakefield as his target after attacking another man on the street just minutes earlier.
His attorney has also said Davis believed he was inside a video game during the attack, CBS Miami reports.
At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, however, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Laura Stuzin questioned whether drug use alone explained the killing.
Dustin Wakefield, 21, was shot dead while dining with his wife, Karina Olguin, and their one-year-old son, Eli, during a vacation in Miami Beach, Florida, on August 24, 2021. Source: Facebook
Tamarius Blair Davis, 27, was sentenced on Thursday to 50 years in prison for the murder.
“This was not a mistake or just a bad episode. This was preventable,” Stuzin told Davis.
“There was something lurking in your inner being that was dark, and you knew it. You could have asked for help.”
The judge said the case was among the most difficult she or any other judge would ever face. She had to weigh prosecutors’ request for a life sentence against defense attorneys’ plea for a sentence of no more than 25 years, according to WSVN.
“I have tried my best to impose a sentence which punishes, but also allows for some hope, even though it may be small,” Stuzin said. She noted Davis’ age and guilty plea, which spared Wakefield’s family the ordeal of a lengthy trial.
“Your son, husband, father and brother was in the prime of his life and was, by all accounts, an exemplary human being,” she told Wakefield’s relatives. “Nothing, including a life sentence, will bring your son back.”
Davis showed no visible reaction as Stuzin delivered the sentence. His attorney, Juan Mourin, said it was “a case that was not going to have a happy ending for anybody no matter what.”
“There’s so much tragedy to go around,” Mourin said, adding that “the Davis family wants to reiterate how much their hearts are broken for the Wakefield family.”
Wakefield’s relatives were later seen leaving the courtroom in a rush before embracing one another in the hallway.
Davis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and child abuse in May
He was arrested in an alley following the brutal shooting. He was said to have told cops he shot Wakefield at random because he was ‘high on mushrooms’
Wakefield’s widow, Karina Olguin, previously recalled the horror of her beloved husband’s final moments as she fought back tears.
She said that her husband begged for his life, telling Davis he had a son, Elijah, who was just a one-year-old.
‘I remember Dustin saying, like, “Please, I have a son, he’s just a boy.” And that’s when it all happened,’ Olguin said.
‘I was like, “Dustin, the baby.” I yelled. Dustin got up, got Eli and took him to my grandma.’
Davis then fired shots at her husband. ‘It was so fast,’ Olguin said.
She remembered her husband ‘as a hero, as a courageous man and as an amazing, loving father’ for shielding their child from harm.
Just moments earlier, Davis was caught on camera firing at another man, who escaped unharmed.
Davis fled the restaurant, police said, and was captured in a nearby alley.
Cellphone video obtained by the Miami Herald showed Davis lying spread-eagle on his back and smiling as three officers approach with their guns pointed towards him yelling commands, warning him that if he touches his gun he will be shot.
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Davis then rolled onto his side into a fetal position, before again rolling onto his back as officers approached.
Davis screamed ‘I give, I give, I give’ as officers flipped him onto his stomach and handcuffed him. A black handgun lay nearby about 10 feet away.
In court this week, Davis admitted that the murder was ‘unspeakably awful.’
He apologized to his own family at the time and told the victim’s loved ones there are ‘no words I can express to the Wakefield family to express how sorry I am.’
Davis also insisted that his actions on the day of Wakefield’s murder were not representative of the man he is, as he claimed he could not remember how the day unfolded after taking the drugs.
‘I was raised better than that,’ the killer said. ‘There are no words that will come out of my mouth that describe the pain and remorse I carry… every day.’
Several of his family members also took the stand and emphasized how their family and the Wakefields have something in common – their strong faith in God.
Tommy Davis, the killer’s father, for example, described his son as a respectful, calm, hardworking man who always joined the family at church.
Growing up, he said, Davis played baseball and football and he never had any disciplinary issues at school.
The elder Davis then went on to say he did not recognize his son as the man who took Wakefield’s life that day.
‘I’m shocked. I’m just totally dumbfounded,’ he said.
‘I would like to personally apologize to the Wakefield family. The person you saw is not the Blair that we know,’ he continued, using his son’s middle name.
Taking the stand at his sentencing hearing this week, Davis admitted that the murder was ‘unspeakably awful’
Deangelina Davis, the killer’s mother, also broke down on the stand, saying she couldn’t fathom how her son shot and killed someone.
She then went on to say she wanted the opportunity to sit down with the Wakefield family, insisting her son would want that too.
‘He did a monstrous thing,’ she admitted. ‘He’s not a monster.’
Talia Brianna Davis was also seen wiping away tears as she said her brother committing murder was ‘unimaginable.’
‘That is not my brother. That is not the version of my brother that I grew up with, that I know,’ she told the court, saying she wished her family and the Wakefields could have crossed paths differently so they could ‘experience the version of my brother that I know.
‘I’m so sorry that my brother… has played a role in this,’ the sister said, before turning to the Wakefields.
‘I know that nothing I could say could ever make up for what you guys are going through, for what my brother put you through.’
Family members have shared how Wakefield jumped in front of Davis’s pistol to protect his one-year-old son, Elijah. Source: GoFundMe
His widow, Karina Olguin (pictured), told the court how she grew up without a father and she did not want that for her son
But Olguin also took the stand to share how the murder impacted her family.
She told how she, her husband and then one-year-old Elijah flew to Miami from their home in Castle Rock, Colorado, for their first family vacation.
In the years since that fateful trip, Olguin said, Eli – who is now seven-years-old, has started asking more frequently about how his father died. At one point, she said she told him he was a ‘hero.’
The mother-of-one also said she is now left heartbroken for her young son because she grew up without a father and knows what that absence is like.
‘When I became a mother, there was one thing I wanted more than anything: I wanted my son to grow up with a daddy,’ she said.
Wakefield’s father, Matthew Wakefield, meanwhile, said Davis decided that day to kill – but his son decided to surrender his life so that his son could live.
The heartbroken father added that his son would have helped Davis, bought him food and prayed with him if Davis had just asked.
‘What you asked for was his life,’ the elder Wakefield told his son’s killer. ‘So you got exactly what you asked for – my son’s life.’