Jaylen Edgar, the teen tried for the Halloween mass shooting in 2024 in downtown Orlando that killed two and injured several others, was found guilty of all charges, including first-degree murder, by a jury Monday.

Following three days of arguments and testimony, the 12-person panel was sent out Monday afternoon to deliberate the charges against Edgar: two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder committed in two separate shootings that night.

In addition to the murder counts for the killings of Tyrek Hill and Timothy Schmidt Jr., the jury returned guilty verdicts for seven counts of attempted murder following about two-and-a-half hours of deliberation. Edgar sat silently as the verdict was read to the court.

Four deputies were stationed in the gallery as Edgar’s loved ones sat opposite his victims and their families. Muffled sobs were heard on both sides as they heard the jury’s decision.

Teresa Clinton, Hill’s mother, and Schmidt’s father, Timothy Schmidt Sr., congratulated each other as it was read in Orange County court.

“Unfortunately, we’re in a shitty club,” Schmidt Sr. told reporters outside the courthouse. “Teresa and I have talked a lot over the last couple of years. We didn’t look forward to this event, but we got very close from this.”

Ahead of the trial, Edgar was expected to take the stand after voicing a desire to pursue an insanity defense, a move that delayed the trial in January. But on Monday, Edgar told Circuit Judge Keith Carsten he no longer wished to do so.

Edgar now faces a lifelong prison sentence. He is slated to be sentenced Oct. 20.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors said Edgar, who was 17 at the time of the shooting and was tried as an adult, didn’t know his targets and was merely looking for trouble in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, 2024. Accompanied by friends he met with earlier that night, he was described as wading through the crowd of about 75,000 mostly costumed partygoers.

With a span of several minutes, he shot and killed Hill, 25, and Schmidt, a 19-year-old University of Central Florida student. Both young men were out with friends at the holiday bash and, prosecutors said, did not know the teen who took their lives.

Prosecutors said evidence, including videos, made it clear Edgar was the shooter but not why he did it.

“This is not a whodunit,” said Assistant State Attorney Frank George in his closing argument to jurors. “… There is no rational explanation for what happened except that it’s what he wanted to do,” George said.

His first victim, Hill, was standing outside a Taco Bell on Orange Avenue and Central Boulevard. Surveillance video showed Edgar, now 18, walking past Hill and his friends just after 1 a.m. before turning quickly and fatally shooting him in the face.

Hill’s friends, Fred Jackson and Gavin Jones, told jurors they were waiting for more people to arrive before hitting the bars when Edgar walked past. Jones said Edgar “walked by Tyrek like he knew him, which he doesn’t.”

“It was an execution,” George said.

Two minutes and 55 seconds later, more gunfire erupted outside a bar on Orange Avenue near Washington Street, less than a block away from the first shooting. Schmidt was struck in the chest and later died at a hospital.

Edgar meant to shoot Anthony Berry, who testified he survived by ducking as Edgar raised his gun following a brief confrontation. A bullet grazed the top of his head.

Prosecutors said Edgar then kept firing aimlessly into the crowd, hitting Schmidt and six others who survived with various injuries before he was tackled by then-Orlando police officer Michael Hernandez. The survivors all testified for the prosecution at trial.

“As horrible as this case is, it could’ve been a lot worse,” George said. “… It’s by pure luck that nine people didn’t wind up dead.”

Jurors also heard from the officers who worked security downtown that night and the crime scene investigators assigned to the scene. They also watched a roughly one-hour video of Edgar’s first interview with police that showed the teen initially denying being involved in the second shooting while offering no explanation for shooting Hill.

Edgar’s defense team rested without calling new witnesses, but in his closing arguments attorney Junior Barrett attempted to poke holes in the prosecution’s thesis that Edgar meant to kill as many people as possible. In his final plea to the jury, Barrett implored them to consider the injuries suffered by the survivors — some with wounds in their arms and legs and one who survived a gunshot to the head — indicate Edgar didn’t intend to kill them.

Barrett also pointed to video of the second shooting that showed Edgar firing behind him aimlessly as he tried to flee the scene, rather than focusing his aim. He further noted Edgar showed up to downtown Orlando without a costume or a mask.

“It was crowded downtown. If it was his intent to kill as many people as possible, why would he leave and come back” after Hill was killed, he asked. “It’s a quantum leap.”

During cross-examinations of the state’s witnesses, Barrett raised questions about whether Edgar fired the second volley of gunshots after Hill was killed. Surveillance video does not clearly show him shooting Schmidt and the other victims, and most of the witnesses did not definitively pointed to him as the shooter.

Other than Berry, the only witness who testified seeing Edgar shooting was Hernandez, now an officer for the City of Miami. However, Barrett pointed to a moment on the stand when Berry hesitated in identifying Edgar before later insisting he was the gunman.

Barrett also sought to raise doubts about the charges in the second shooting accusing him of premeditation. He argued after the jury was released Friday that Carsten should acquit his client from the bench as Schmidt and the survivors, aside from Berry, were not intentionally targeted.

Carsten rejected his arguments. No one other than Edgar has been accused of firing a gun that night.

“You can disregard that,” George said in his rebuttal Monday.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell issued a statement congratulating her prosecutors and the investigators who worked on bringing the case to trial. She also expressed support to the victims and their families.

”Their strength has carried this case as much as any piece of evidence, and it will carry this community long after today’s headlines fade,” her statement read. “We owe them more than a verdict. We owe them our continued commitment to fight for a community where no family has to bury a loved one because of someone else’s violence.”

Edgar’s responsibility was hardly disputed at trial. Indeed, three weeks before it began, Edgar wrote a letter to Carsten admitting he was the shooter and expressing remorse. That letter was not mentioned as part of the proceedings.

In January, Edgar delayed the trial after telling the court he wanted to explore an insanity defense, the prerogative of a defendant but one Barrett, who tried and failed to be removed from the case, vehemently opposed.

New mental health evaluations were ordered. While the results were sealed, Barrett told the court before the trial began that he would not rely on an insanity defense.

The shooting prompted renewed concerns by city leaders about the safety of downtown Orlando, which had tightened security following a mass shooting in 2022. Following the 2024 shooting, officials were quick to point to Florida’s change to its concealed-carry law that forced Orlando police to end security checks for guns entering downtown.

Ultimately, no new restrictions to downtown nightlife were adopted, but a slice of Orange Avenue once blocked off to vehicle traffic on weekends was since reopened.

The City of Orlando and the operator of Wall Street Plaza, a core part of its party scene, were sued by Hill’s and Schmidt’s families for wrongful death. Both entities were accused of providing inadequate security for the Halloween celebrations.

That lawsuit is pending.

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