Convicted Boynton Beach Mall shooter will get new sentence

Wilson Pierre Jr. never apologized after a jury convicted him for the 2006 Christmas Eve murder at the Boynton Beach Mall.

The felon — who insisted he didn’t do it — was sentenced to 40 years in state prison by a Palm Beach County judge who pointed out that Pierre showed “no remorse” for “a cold-blooded killing.”

But a Florida appeals court has ruled that the judge was wrong to hold Pierre’s lack of contrition against him. He’s now entitled to a new sentence before a different judge.

On Friday, Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes set a hearing for Tuesday to assign Pierre, 33, a lawyer and a sentencing date. The law requires at least a 25-year minimum sentence.

A three-judge panel for the 4th District Court of Appeal last November upheld Pierre’s 2016 second-degree murder conviction for the slaying of Berno Charlemond, 24.

But the appellate court judges also ruled Pierre deserves a new punishment because Circuit Judge Dina Keever had made a point that Pierre never said he was sorry about it.

Pierre had insisted that the cops had framed him and a “wrongful conviction doesn’t make this right.”

In an opinion that cited a 2010 appeals court ruling, Associate Judge Jennifer Hilal wrote, “a lack of remorse cannot be taken into consideration at sentencing when a defendant is protesting his innocence.”

The court also cited other prior decisions finding it violates such an individual’s “right against self-incrimination” to consider lack of remorse in sentencing.

At Pierre’s 2016 retrial, defense attorney Gerald Salerno challenged the reliability of the witnesses from the mall and the fact that police didn’t find the murder weapon or collect fingerprints. Also, there were no surveillance videos or DNA evidence in the case.

Pierre “wasn’t looking to kill anybody,” Salerno said.

But prosecutors Craig Williams and Danielle Sherriff said the evidence was clear that Pierre gunned down Charlemond at about 2:30 p.m., Dec. 24, 2006, near the J.C. Penney department store.

They explained to the jury that Charlemond was chasing Pierre down a mall corridor after a confrontation among several men. That’s when Pierre allegedly turned suddenly, pulled a pistol from his waistband and fired near the Easy Spirit shoe store.

The victim “was murdered by that man, Wilson Pierre, in a crowded mall, in front of (holiday shoppers) without a care for anyone that was around,” Sherriff said.

Under trial rules, the jurors were not told that the shooting followed a fight between rival Haitian-American street gangs.

After the mall violence, Pierre’s defense initially blamed the killing on Jesse Cesar, a onetime suspect in the case police identified as a member of the same gang with Pierre.

Cesar, who was cooperating with police, was killed in Orlando six months after the mall shooting.

At his last sentencing hearing, Pierre denied being a gang member.

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