Thirteen years ago a Florida jury looked at George Zimmerman and said Stand Your Ground means what it says.
They're saying it again.
This Florida woman shot a man who chased her through a Walmart parking lot – and prosecutors decided this week they can't prove she was wrong.
What the Video Actually Shows
Melissa Payne pulled into a Walmart parking space on June 30.
Bart DiGuglielmo tried to claim it first – then blocked the traffic lane with his SUV, grabbed a shopping cart, and walked toward the store.
Payne parked.
DiGuglielmo came back 90 seconds later and, according to multiple witnesses, told her he was going to damage her car.
Then he drove away at high speed.
He didn't leave.
He parked two aisles over, sat in his vehicle for 90 seconds, and walked straight back toward her.
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/2095580498672386157?s=20
Witnesses described him as visibly angry and shaking.
He started moving toward Payne.
Payne got out with a phone in her left hand and a gun in her right.
She warned him to stop.
A bystander yelled at both of them that it wasn't worth it.
DiGuglielmo initially backed off – then turned and started toward her again.
Payne retreated into an empty space when a minivan pulled out.
DiGuglielmo followed her around a parked car, made a motion with his keys toward her vehicle, then walked at her again.
She fired once.
One bullet, abdomen.
DiGuglielmo died at a hospital.
The Prosecutors Said the Quiet Part Out Loud
Homicide Trial Unit Division Chief Stephen Zaccor put it plainly in his memo: the video does not show Payne was "in the right."
What it shows is that prosecutors cannot prove her fear of great bodily harm was unreasonable – and under Florida law, that's the whole case.
That's not a technicality.
That's Stand Your Ground working exactly as written.
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Florida passed the law in 2005, the first state in the nation to remove the duty to retreat outside your home.
The legislature made a deliberate choice: law-abiding citizens being stalked through a parking lot by a man who already threatened them do not have to wait to get hit before defending themselves.
Payne also had her infant great-niece in Malibu the entire time.
She stayed at the scene, cooperated with deputies, waived her Miranda rights, and gave a statement that matched every piece of video evidence.
They Will Call It a Loophole
The media will spend the next week making this a race story.
That's the playbook – it was the playbook with Zimmerman in 2013, and it will be the playbook here.
But the video is the record.
A man made two separate threats, ignored a firearm pointed at him, and kept coming.
Florida law does not require you to absorb the first punch before you can defend yourself.
The left won't tell you DiGuglielmo made his first threat before he ever got back out of his car.
They won't tell you she backed up until there was nowhere left to go.
They'll call Stand Your Ground a license to kill.
This Is Exactly the Point
Democrats have tried to kill Stand Your Ground in Tallahassee almost annually since Trayvon Martin.
They've failed every single time because the law protects something real.
It says a woman with a baby in her car – being stalked by a man who already threatened to destroy her property – doesn't have to wait for him to make contact before she can protect her family.
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The left wants to live in a country where she has to take the hit first.
Florida said no in 2005, said no again every year since, and said no again on September 1st when Broward prosecutors closed this case.
Zaccor's memo doesn't pretend the law is about who was right.
It's about whether her fear was reasonable.
On video, a man chased a woman around a parking lot until she fired.
Stand Your Ground worked.
Sources:
- Olivia Richman, "Florida Woman Won't Face Charges After Walmart Parking-Space Fight Turned Fatal," Yahoo News, September 5, 2026.
- "Charges Will Not Be Filed Against Woman Who Fatally Shot Man in North Lauderdale Walmart Parking Lot," Local 10 News, September 3, 2026.
- "No Charges in Fatal Handicapped Parking Shooting Under Stand Your Ground Law," Fox 13 News, July 2018.
- "Florida Bid to Repeal Stand Your Ground Law Fails," Reuters, 2013.
- "Florida's Stand Your Ground Law," Florida Statutes §776.012 and §776.032, via Hussein & Webber Law.
