Shot twice and bleeding from slash wounds in his arm and chest, DeWayne Williams was not entirely sure he was still alive. He lay on his bedroom floor while his assailant — Williams didn’t know what his assailant was doing. He only knew he had seen movies like this, and he knew how they ended.
“I’m about to die,” he said, reliving the Sept. 12, 2019, incident for a Broward jury on Tuesday. Then he heard a voice in his head. It was insistent. “Get up,” the voice told him. “Get up and run!”
Williams did, stumbling his way out of his house to a neighbor’s, pleading for help.
The alleged gunman, Michael Robert Schnitzerling, 34, is on trial in Fort Lauderdale, accused of trying to kill Williams and of murdering Bruce Salituri, 59, owner of the house where Williams had been staying for about five years. If convicted of Salituri’s murder, Schnitzerling would be sentenced to life in prison or, if a jury and judge agree, to the death penalty.
Williams, 43, never identified the defendant as his assailant during his testimony Tuesday, as he answered questions posed by prosecutor Tonya Johnson. The man who showed up at Salituri’s door that morning was wearing a hat, glasses and a long-sleeved orange shirt emblazoned with the logo for “Florida Drilling.” Williams did not recognize Schnitzerling when his picture was included in an array of photos he was shown shortly after the shooting.
Investigators identified the defendant through a gun left behind at the scene, the shirt and cellphone records that showed his phone’s location was consistent with what was known about the killer after the incident.
Defense lawyer Joseph Kimok, in his opening statement and in questioning of witnesses, indicated Schnitzerling is an innocent man set up by the killer as a “perfect fall guy.”
Williams said the killer showed up at Salituri’s home pretending to work for Florida Power & Light. “He said we were using too much voltage,” Williams said. Williams went to his room and left Salituri to deal with the man. About a half-hour later, the man showed up again to talk to Williams. With no warning, the man pulled his weapon.
“You people pissed somebody off,” the gunman told Williams. “And you’ve seen my face.”
The first shot was directly in Williams’ face, entering at the left cheek and exiting through his neck. The bullet from the second shot is still lodged between his neck and right shoulder, he said. After the second shot, the gunman switched to a knife, slashing away and cutting Williams twice.
That’s when Williams said he collapsed, regrouped, and fled the scene.
He heard one shot as he ran to a neighbor, who called 911.
Police responding to the scene found Salituri shot to death.
The trial is scheduled to resume Wednesday.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda.