Pensacola, Fl
A Pensacola fisherman was sentenced to federal prison for stabbing the captain of a commercial fishing boat on which he was working last year as a crew member.
Robert Lester Odom, 47, was sentenced Friday to three years and four months in prison after previously pleading guilty to assaulting with a dangerous weapon with intent to cause bodily harm, according to Lawrence Keefe, the US attorney general for the Northern District of Florida.
On September 27, 2019, Odom attacked and injured the captain of a fishing boat with a pellet rifle and a knife with a long blade.
“This fierce attack has become more dangerous because of the ship’s location, far from help,” Keefe said in a press release.
At the time, the ship was about 20 to 26 nautical miles southeast of the Perdido Pass.
Odom was one of two crew members on the ship shortly before 9:30 pm. that night. Prosecutors said he shot the captain in the chest with a shotgun and stabbed the captain twice.
The stabs caused immediate and profuse bleeding, according to Keefe.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission responded to a call for help, and Coast Guard personnel provided first aid to the captain before airlifting him to Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital by helicopter.
As part of his sentence, Odom was ordered to pay the captain $ 12,180 in compensation, and upon his release from prison, Odom would begin a three-year period of supervised federal release.
