A Lee County jury has sent a Tice man to prison for the rest of his life after convicting him of robbing and pistol-whipping another man outside a residence near Palm Beach Boulevard. Jose Enrique Dejesus was adjudicated guilty of robbery with a firearm following a July jury trial, and a judge handed down the life sentence on Monday.
According to the State Attorneys Office, the case stemmed from an encounter that began after the 53-year-old victim left a gas station near Palm Beach Boulevard and followed a woman and three men to a house, where he had drinks. The victim told investigators he did not know the woman or the three men before that night, according to the state attorney's office. Once outside the Tice residence, prosecutors say Dejesus and others attacked him, ripping off his earrings and pistol-whipping him during the robbery.
The assault left the victim with a black eye and a jaw injury, per the same account. Prosecutors say he was also robbed of personal belongings including his cell phone, jewelry, and cash during the attack. As Gulf Coast News and Weather reported, the case was investigated by the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
Why the Firearm Turned a Robbery Into a Life Sentence
Under Florida Statute § 812.13(2)(a), robbery with a firearm is a first-degree felony carrying a statutory maximum of life in state prison, according to the Jeff T. Gorman Law Offices. By contrast, a strong-arm robbery without a weapon is only a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years, per FindLaw — meaning the presence of a firearm during the Tice attack is what exposed Dejesus to a potential life term rather than a far shorter sentence.
Florida's so-called 10-20-Life law, codified at Florida Statute § 775.087, also imposes a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison for anyone who actually possesses a firearm during an armed robbery, a punishment judges cannot reduce, according to The Rodriguez Law Office. Because Florida abolished discretionary parole for felonies committed after October 1, 1983, the same source notes that a life sentence in this case effectively means Dejesus will remain incarcerated without any chance of parole board release.
Prosecution Team and Case Status
The State Attorney's Office for the 20th Judicial Circuit, led by State Attorney Amira D. Fox, handled the prosecution, with Assistant State Attorney Melanie Sanders and Certified Legal Intern Yanila Noy trying the case, the office said. Fox oversees the circuit covering Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry, and Glades counties after winning re-election in 2022 and running unopposed in 2026, according to WGCU News.
A co-defendant, Brian Wilson, was also arrested in connection with the robbery and remains a defendant pending trial. Joint felony indictments like this one often lead to separate trial dates depending on defense motions and court scheduling, according to the Brancato Law Firm, P.A. The outcome and scheduling of Wilson's trial remain open questions for now.
A Quiet Corner of Lee County
Tice is an unincorporated community and census-designated place along the Palm Beach Boulevard corridor east of Fort Myers, with a population of 4,853 residents recorded in the 2020 U.S. Census, according to data compiled by RandyMajors.org using U.S. Census Bureau figures. The Lee County Sheriff's Office maintains public crime mapping tools to track violent and property crime incidents across unincorporated areas like Tice, including along Palm Beach Boulevard and its surrounding neighborhoods.
The case adds to a string of recent violent robbery investigations handled by Lee County deputies. Hoodline previously reported on a 156-mile Corvette robbery chase that ended in a Fort Myers traffic stop, as well as a separate jewelry-snatching robbery investigated in the county.
