Four months before he kidnapped a Miami Shores Walgreens manager, held him at gunpoint as a human shield and got shot by cops, Adler Dupuy suffered a debilitating stroke.
For that reason, a Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday gave Dupuy a significantly lowered sentence: 15 years in prison even though he faced a minimum of nearly 37.
Saying the case offered a unique set of facts, Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny said the stroke left lesions on the brain that had affected Dupuys ability to control his impulses and appreciate the consequences of his crime spree.
On March 29, 2008, Dupuy sporting a black ski mask and wielding a handgun hid in the Walgreens, 9020 Biscayne Blvd., and surprised a group of employees around 6 a.m. Dupuy took a bag of cash and coins from them, but was still in the store when police arrived.
In a dramatic scene caught on video by a news crew, the armed robber took the store manager hostage, shoved him through the parking lot and inside the mans Honda Civic. But the manager broke free, escaped the car and officers shot Dupuy as he drove off, crashing into a fence.
Dupuy was later captured and hospitalized.
The robbery scare led to a day of havoc for the suburban community. Main thoroughfares were blocked off for hours, snarling traffic around Walgreens and the Publix next door.
In November 2009, a judge found that Dupuys poor mental state meant he was incompetent to proceed to trial. He was committed to a Florida psychiatric hospital for treatment.
Dupuy was rehabilitated and declared competent less than one year later.
His defense attorney, Miami-Dade Assistant Public Defender Katie Carmon, last month asked the judge to sentence Dupuy below the minimum 36.75 years in prison mandated by Florida law for the dozen felonies.
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Stroke leads to lesser sentence for Miami Shores kidnapper