An 84-year-old Parrish man was sentenced to life in prison for killing a former Anna Maria Island hairstylist.
Judge Brian Iten meted out the life sentence for Eugene Matthews April 19, as well as two 30-year prison sentences for two attempted murders, each with a 25-year minimum, to run concurrently.
A jury convicted Matthews Feb. 23 of second-degree murder for Rebecca Rawson’s death and attempted second-degree murder counts involving her daughter Kathryn Rawson and brother-in-law Rodney Rawson.
Kathryn and Rebecca Rawson were waiting in a vehicle for Rodney Rawson to return from Matthews’ home with a family dog in January 2017 when a bullet pierced the windshield, striking Kathryn.
Prefacing the sentence, Iten said: “Everyone agrees the death of Rebecca Rawson here was nothing short of a tragedy.
Matthews was angry the day “he shot into the car, at the car,” the judge added, and adopted the maximum sentencing recommended by the lead prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Dickey Hough.
Friends and family in the court gallery supported Kathryn Rawson, who held a large photograph of her mother on the stand.
Kathryn Rawson looked at Matthews and said: “I want you to take a good hard look at this picture.” She called Matthews “a monster,” and said she doubted he’d ever feel remorse.
She described her mother as “the most selfless kind of woman you could ever meet.” Her mother, shot in the face, covered her in blood, she said.
After her testimony, Kathryn Rawson sobbed in the gallery.
Matthews testified from his seat next to his attorney, saying Iten’s sentence didn’t matter because he’d likely live only a few more years. He called the shooting an accident from a bullet that ricocheted and maintained he was standing his ground.
Neither Kathryn nor Rodney Rawson were hit in the spray of bullets.
“I will not let you take what you did on Jan. 10, 2017, overtake over my life,” Kathryn Rawson said.
Ed Rawson, her father and formerly of Holmes Beach, died about a week before the shooting incident.
“I woke up on Jan. 11 without my parents. For what?”
Rebecca Rawson was a former Holmes Beach resident who, for 30 years, worked at Head Quarters Salon in Holmes Beach and at Lor-Ells Hair Design, an Anna Maria salon that closed in 2016.
Kathryn Rawson worked for Island Cabana, a boutique on Pine Avenue in Anna Maria.