BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A Jacksonville man with a prior murder conviction was sentenced to five years in state prison after pleading no contest to a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, court records show.
Mitchell Evan Daughtry, 25, was sentenced Feb. 11 in Bradford County Circuit Court by Judge James Colaw. Under the plea agreement, Daughtry received adjudication of guilt and a 60-month prison sentence, with the first 36 months to be served as a mandatory minimum. He was credited with 117 days of time already served.
Daughtry was arrested Oct. 18, 2025, by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Trevor Hausler after the officer responded to a trespassing complaint on private property near Lawtey. A private landowner had notified authorities of an active trespass near Northwest 265th Street and reported a trail camera photo of a vehicle on the property.
Upon arriving, Hausler found Daughtry and another man, Zachary Wesley Zinner, in a white Dodge pickup truck. The officer observed a loaded Mossberg Maverick Model 88 12-gauge shotgun in the passenger seat where Daughtry had been riding, along with a box of ammunition on the floorboard and a high-powered spotlight in the driver’s seat.
After both men were read their Miranda rights and agreed to speak with the officer, Daughtry admitted to handling and shooting the firearm that night. A background check revealed Daughtry had a prior felony conviction for second-degree murder. The landowner declined to pursue trespassing charges.
The two men told the officer they believed they were in a Wildlife Management Area and had planned on target shooting.
The sentence carried a mandatory minimum under the state’s 10-20-Life firearm law. Daughtry’s criminal history, which included the prior second-degree murder conviction, factored into his sentencing scoresheet, yielding a total of 91 points and a lowest permissible prison sentence of approximately 47 months. The negotiated plea of 60 months exceeded that floor.
Assistant State Attorney Ryan King prosecuted the case. Assistant Public Defender Eddie Edwards represented the defendant.
In 2015, when Daughtry was 14 years old, he was arrested for stabbing his mother to death in Jacksonville.
According to media reports, Pamela Ann Daughtry sent an urgent text message to her daughter on Aug. 18, 2015, asking for help. She explained that the 14-year-old was getting angry and asked the grown daughter to come over to calm him down. However, Kristen Daughtry saw the text too late because she didn’t have her phone with her, and when she arrived at her mother’s about 45 minutes later, she found Pamela Daughtry dead, and Mitchell Daughtry missing. Police in Sunny Isles Beach, north of Miami, arrested the 14-year-old later that day.
At the time of the killing, the defendant’s father, Barry Douglas Daughtry, was facing charges of lewd and lascivious molestation of someone younger than 12. Friends of the family told First Coast News they believed the teen was growing frustrated and angry over his father‘s legal troubles.
Mitchell Daughtry spent six years in custody as a result of the murder.
