THALLAS J. INMAN will spend life in prison for the automatic-rifle ambush that killed an 18-year-old and injured two others who were parked at a Sanford apartment complex in 2022.
Seminole County prosecutors Stewart Stone, Rich Coln and Donovan Wagner convinced a jury in September to find Inman, 23, guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two related charges.
At Inman’s sentencing Oct. 7, Circuit Judge Michael Rudisill imposed three life sentences for the murder and attempted murder convictions plus 15 years for shooting into a vehicle and 15 years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The sentences will run concurrently but with no chance for parole.
“It’s a just sentence,” Stone said. “The guy is a criminal. He’s someone who deserves to be taken off the streets because he’s dangerous.”
Sanford police investigators said Inman and two accomplices, armed with assault-style rifles, approached a red Kia Optima parked outside the Hatteras Sound Apartments the afternoon of Nov. 20, 2022. The gunmen fired more than 53 shots at the car and its three occupants, killing Isaiah Diaz with “a massive amount of wounds,” Medical Examiner Tracey Corey, M.D., testified at trial. A second gunshot victim was hospitalized and survived. The third passenger suffered minor injuries.
Meanwhile, Inman’s mother remains jailed for contempt of court. Tammy Spivey, 44, came forward in 2022 to tell investigators she recognized her son in a security video of the shooting that Sanford Police had released to the public to seek leads. But when called to testify at Inman’s trial, Spivey refused, and Rudisill sentenced her to 179 days in jail.
Police did not positively identify or arrest Inman’s accomplices in the 2022 murder.
But the State Attorney’s Office is not done with Inman, who is one of 12 defendants charged in a separate, gang-related murder case in Seminole County. Inman and the others were arrested for a January 2023 drive-by shooting at a rapper’s entourage as it was riding in a Sprinter van after a concert. The shooting killed passenger Princess Tolliver, 31, and injured five other women in the van. That case has not yet been set for trial.