White ordered held under $80,000 bond

Everett Arnold White, 44, of 4309 N. Tamiami Trail, Unit 105, in Sarasota, was arrested on Monday, Jan. 27, in connection with a Jan. 18 shooting in the 4300 block of North Tamiami Trail, Cynthia McLaughlin, the Sarasota Police Department’s public information officer, has announced.
The arrest took place that morning, she wrote in a news release, thanks to assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.
Shortly before 7 a.m. on Jan. 18, Sarasota Police personnel who responded to the 4300 block of Nort Tamiami Trail found that one adult had been injured in the shooting, “which appears to have been isolated in nature,” McLaughlin pointed out.
White has been charged with Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, McLaughlin added. Initially, he was being held without bond in the Sarasota County Jail, as McLaughlin noted. However, a Jan. 29 Sarasota News Leader check of the Sheriff’s Office Corrections Division record for White said that total bond of $80,000 had been set, with $75,000 of that for the Aggravated Battery charge.
White’s arraignment was scheduled for March 14, the Corrections Division record added.
The Probable Cause Affidavit attached to the arrest warrant for White says that, at 6:49 p.m. on Jan. 18, officers were dispatched to the Super 8 by Wyndham hotel, which stands at 4309 N. Tamiami Trail. When they arrived on the scene, the affidavit notes, they found the victim, Zepharin Williams, “with a gunshot wound” in his abdomen. As they provided him medical attention, the affidavit continues, he told them that the shooter was a Black male he knows by the name of Everett.
The victim was transported to the hospital, the affidavit adds.
In reviewing the 911 call that the victim’s girlfriend — Karnesha Goodson — had placed, the affidavit says, officers learned that Goodson had reported that a friend of Williams had shot him. She identified the suspect as Everett White and provided information about White’s car, the affidavit notes.
Goodson said she believed that White is a resident of the first floor of the hotel. Officers confirmed that, the affidavit indicates.

During an interview with a Sarasota Police Department detective while she was with Williams at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the affidavit continues, Goodson reported that she and Williams live in a room of the hotel, as well. While they were in that room, she continued, Wiliams told her that he was leaving to collect $20 from “Nook,” the affidavit adds.
Goodson remained in the room, it says.
About 2 minutes later, she told the detective, she heard a single gunshot. Williams then returned to their room, she added, holding his abdomen and telling her that “Nook” had shot him.
Goodson provided the room number where “Nook” lives at the hotel, the affidavit says, as well as the make and color of his car.
The affidavit further notes that two witnesses outside the hotel that evening told officers that they “saw two men arguing” outside Room 105. One of those witnesses was leaving, heading northbound, when he heard a gunshot, the affidavit adds. When he looked back at the scene, it says, he “saw one of the men holding his stomach while walking up the stairs.”
That witness also provided a description of the clothing that the shooter was wearing, the affidavit notes.
The second witness had returned to her room when the first witness — her son — came in and told her that White had shot Williams, the affidavit continues. Witness No. 2 went to Williams’ room, where she saw Goodson holding a towel over his wound and trying to call 911, the affidavit says. Witness No. 2 took over applying pressure to the wound until the EMS unit arrived, the affidavit notes.
Witness No. 2 also reported to police personnel that White “had a mini 9mm or 40 caliber [weapon] when they were dating and that White also was known as “Nook” or “Nookie.”
A third witness reported that she was in the room with White when Williams knocked on the door several times, the affidavit continues. When White opened the door, she added, Williams told her to give him $20 or “ ‘something worth $20.00, rocks or whatever,’ ” referring to drugs, the affidavit says.

At one point, the affidavit adds, according to Witness No. 3, White pushed the door closed, “but it remained cracked open,” with Williams standing outside, repeating his earlier demand. Williams threatened White, the witness pointed out, saying that if White did not give him the money or something of equal value, Williams was “ ‘gonna handle [White]. I’m gonna get rid of you. I’m gonna kill you.’ ”
White stepped outside, the affidavit continues, and the two men began fighting.
Although Witness No. 3 did not see them, she told police personnel that she could hear them, “and it sounded physical.”
Then, the affidavit says, “Suddenly, [White] came into the room, retrieved his gun from the nightstand drawer between the beds, and walked toward the door.”
White was standing just inside the threshold, Witness No. 3 said, and Williams was just outside the door when she heard a gunshot and White “closed the door, remained inside for a few seconds and left the room.”
That witness did not see him drive away and she did not know whether he still had the gun with him, she told police personnel, the affidavit continues.
The affidavit points out that “White has several felony convictions” and that he had served in the Florida Department of Corrections for 14 years after a conviction for murder in 1997.
A 2017 charge of aggravated assault
A News Leader search of the records maintained by the Office of the Sarasota County Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller found that, in July 2017, White also was charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon without Intent to Kill, along with charges of possession of a weapon by a convicted weapon, and assault.
The Probable Cause Affidavit in that case described an incident that occurred just after midnight on July 5 2017 in a field near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Leon Avenue in Sarasota, with both children and adults present. Witnesses told police personnel that two people present were “preparing to fight” before the situation was resolved.

The affidavit added that White, who was known as “Nuke,” according to police interviews, tried to inject himself into a conversation involving relatives of the two persons who were going to engage in the fight. He pulled “a semi-automatic handgun from his waistband with his right hand and [holding] it next to his thigh.”
A witness reported that White was a relative of one of the people involved in the situation. “At one point,” the affidavit continued, White pointed his gun at a person’s abdomen.
People at the scene “grabbed [White],” that affidavit added, and pulled him away “to keep him from shooting …”
That affidavit also noted White’s conviction in the 1997 case mentioned in the latest affidavit; it said that he was released from prison in March 2010.
Court records show that White was found guilty of a misdemeanor count in that case and ordered to pay a fine and costs. The court order was dated Jan. 23, 2018.