August 15, 2025
PRESS RELEASE
(Walton County, Florida) Ginger Bowden Madden, State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida, announced today that Shawn Richard Bennett was convicted of First Degree Murder and Robbery while armed with a firearm. A Walton County jury returned the verdict Thursday evening following three days of testimony. Judge J. Ryan Love remanded Bennett to the Walton County Jail. Judge Love scheduled Bennett’s sentencing for October 7, 2025.
On August 11, 2021 the victim communicated with Thomas Pride about purchasing pain pills. Pride and Bennett started discussing a plan to rob the victim of a large amount of cash the victim possessed. In the early morning hours of August 12, 2021, the victim drove from Fort Walton Beach to purchase pills from Pride in Mossy Head. When the victim approached the residence Bennett made contact with the victim and informed him he would return in a minute with the narcotics. However, Bennett returned with a firearm and fired one shot killing the victim.
Bennett and Pride then moved the body to the backseat of the victim’s vehicle and drove to Crestview Florida where they paid another person to bury the victim’s body in a shallow grave in a wooded lot in a residential area. After burying the body, Bennett was observed on surveillance videos at numerous businesses in the victim’s vehicle. Okaloosa County Sheriffs office located the defendant in a shed in Crestview in possession of the victim’s firearm. A search warrant served by Walton County Sheriff’s Office at the shed the defendant was living in recovered additional property belonging to the victim.
Pride had previously been convicted and was sentenced by a Circuit Court Judge to thirty years in the Department of Corrections for setting up the Robbery and his participation in the murder. Bennett’s trial began years to the day after the victim was killed. The delay was due to the defendant being convicted and sentenced to the Florida Department of Corrections for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in Okaloosa County.
Circuit Court Judge J. Ryan Love set sentencing for October 7, 2025.
The investigation and arrest were conducted by the Walton County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Assistant State Attorney Josh Mitchell and Angela Liles prosecuted the case on behalf of Ginger Bowden Madden, State Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida. For further information, please contact Mr. Mitchell at (850) 892-8080.
