Golf is serious business. Who the fuck takes a gun to a golf course? Florida!!! America!!!
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2025/02/07/elderly-kings-point-golfer-robert-levine-shooter-claims-self-defense-tells-jury-he-was-the-victim/78288764007/
WEST PALM BEACH — A 77-year-old man who shot a dog walker in the ankle and beat him with a golf club at their shared senior community near Delray Beach overcame the worst of three criminal charges against him Thursday.
Jurors acquitted Robert Levine of aggravated battery with a firearm and discharging a firearm in public, sparing him from a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison. Convicted only of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon — a bloodied golf club — he scores closer to two years in prison but could avoid it altogether.
Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss will decide Levine's sentence on March 27.
His side:
Levine said he warned Merritt several times that he was not allowed to walk a dog on the course. When Merritt purportedly ignored him, Levine said he called him a "schmuck" — a Yiddish term that Levine said he believes betrayed the fact that he is an Orthodox Jew.
Contrary to Merritt's testimony, Levine said Merritt called him a "Jew bastard" in response, an accusation Merritt denied Friday. Levine said the slur made him believe he was about to be the victim of a violent antisemitic attack.
"To do nothing would have resulted in serious injury or death to Levine," said defense attorney Robert Gershman.
Instead, Levine drove to Merritt on his golf cart. Gershman said that as soon as Levine stopped the cart, Merritt reached into Levine's golf bag, grabbed a club and began to swing it at Levine's head.
Gershman said Levine tried to deflect the blow with his own golf club, then grabbed his semiautomatic handgun and fired warning shots into the ground.
"Merritt went down," the attorney continued. "It appears that a ricochet fragment had hit his ankle. Levine breathed a sigh of relief and called 911."
The victim's side:
Merritt, now 67, disagreed. He said he was walking his 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Annie, in the grass next to the course when he noticed Levine using a golf club too powerful for the shot he had to make.
Merritt said he remarked on Levine's choice, prompting Levine to approach him on his golf cart and begin arguing about Annie's proximity to the course. Merritt said Levine then pulled a handgun and aimed it at him.
Merritt began to run.
One witness, roused from bed by the sound of gunfire, said she saw Levine chase Merritt around a tree while shooting, striking him once in the left ankle. She and a man who watched from a nearby balcony said that after shooting Merritt, Levine retrieved a club from his golf cart and began striking Merritt while he sat bleeding, Annie's leash still in his hand.
Deputies said they found four shell casings on the ground and two bloody golf clubs. They charged Levine with attempted murder, a first-degree felony for which he could have been sentenced to life in prison had prosecutors tried to convict him of it.
Gershman said Levine is grateful for the jury's verdict and hopeful he'll receive a fair sentence. He theorized that Levine's belief that he was the target of antisemitic violence, combined with the many physical maladies that Levine said prevented him from acting how Merritt and the witnesses described, helped convince the jury that he acted in self-defense.