Jury: Man who fired gunshots at wedding acted in self-defense

MIRAMAR BEACH — A jury has acquitted a man who fired two gunshots last year during a fight before a South Walton wedding, ruling he was acting in self-defense.

Timothy Sonnier was acquitted of aggravated assault and aggravated battery with great bodily harm late Tuesday, his attorneys at the Destin law firm Pleat & Perry said Wednesday. He had pleaded not guilty at the beginning of the trial Monday.

“This was a guy who was just defending himself and his life and his family,” said attorney Winter Spires. She said the gunshots Sonnier fired “were strictly warning shots” aimed nowhere near the man sheriff’s deputies called the victim in the case.

The incident happened July 25, 2009, when Sonnier came to South Walton for a wedding and arrived at a condominium on Scenic Gulf Drive to find someone else intoxicated in his room, Spires said.

There was an argument before 26-year-old Adam Sonnier “essentially attacked” Timothy Sonnier, Spires said, and a fistfight ensued. Timothy Sonnier eventually fired two gunshots, which Walton County sheriff’s deputies at the time said were aimed “at the victim” but instead hit a window and the floor.

Spires said they clearly were warning shots, and “after the first shot, this guy still attacked him again.”

Deputies also said Timothy Sonnier pistol-whipped the younger man, leaving a gash in his head.

Walton County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mike Gurspan said the men were not related despite having the same last name.

Timothy Sonnier was arrested four days after the incident, when staff at Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast admitted him and recognized his face (his photo was released to news outlets by the Sheriff’s Office, which had an arrest warrant).

Spires said Timothy Sonnier wasn’t aware he was being sought. Neighbors, not the alleged victim or other wedding guests, called police, she said. The wedding went on as scheduled.

“There was no need for police involvement at that point,” she said. “It was over, as far as he was concerned.”

She said Timothy Sonnier, who has three young children and lives in Louisiana, is “absolutely happy to have this behind him.”

“This is just one of those cases,” she said, “where the public should reserve judgment until the whole story’s been told.”