A Sanford man who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in 2024 has been sentenced to life in prison, the State Attorney’s Office said Tuesday. Nathaniel Bratcher, 28, was convicted last month of second-degree murder and battery and received a life term after a judge heard emotional victim-impact testimony. The shooting happened in September 2024, when the victim was found on the back porch of an apartment with a gunshot wound.
What deputies say happened
According to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called to the Sun Lake Apartments on September 18, 2024, after witnesses reported hearing an argument followed by a single gunshot. When deputies arrived, they found Larreon Da'Quan Cosby on a back porch, unresponsive from a gunshot wound.
Cosby’s girlfriend told investigators that Bratcher had called her and threatened to kill Cosby, the sheriff’s report states. When she could not reach Cosby afterward, she and others rushed to the apartment and found him on the porch.
A sheriff’s alert helicopter later spotted Bratcher’s white Ford Mustang near Osceola Drive and El Capitan Drive. Sanford police officers stopped the car and took Bratcher into custody without incident, according to the sheriff’s office.
Court outcome
Prosecutors said Bratcher was convicted in March and on Tuesday was sentenced to life in prison, according to ClickOrlando. Before that, the Office of the State Attorney presented the case to a grand jury, which returned an indictment on first-degree premeditated murder and armed burglary charges in late 2024, per a press release from the Office of the State Attorney.
Family impact
At sentencing, Cosby’s mother addressed the court with a victim-impact statement that drove home what the shooting cost her family.
"Bratcher not only took my son, he took a father, a grandchild, a brother, an uncle, and a friend from us," she said, according to ClickOrlando. She added that "for this past year, my life has been nothing but pain," and told the court that no sentence could ever bring her son back.
Legal context
Under Florida law, second-degree murder is a first-degree felony defined as conduct that is “imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind,” and it is punishable by a prison term of up to life, according to Florida Statutes §782.04. That sentencing range gives judges the discretion to impose a life sentence when prosecutors and juries find the conduct meets the statute’s elements.
What’s next
The sheriff’s office said anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Seminole County Sheriff's Office at 407-665-6650 or CrimeLine at 1-800-423-TIPS, referencing the agency’s news release. Prosecutors said witness testimony, text messages, and physical evidence tied Bratcher to the killing, according to the Office of the State Attorney.
