Cocoa woman held without bond on attempted murder charge in Port St. John shooting

A 24-year-old Cocoa woman is being held without bond at the Brevard County Jail. Sheriff’s investigators say she fired a shot through a car’s passenger window in Port St. John early Saturday, wounding a woman sitting inside.

Katherine Dale Kelly faces four felony counts in Brevard Circuit Court case 05-2026-CF-055828, according to Brevard County Clerk of Court records as reported by The Space Coast Rocket:

• attempted first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm

• aggravated battery with a deadly weapon

• shooting a deadly missile into an occupied vehicle

• use of a firearm in the commission of a felony

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is the charging agency.

What deputies say happened

According to an arrest-warrant affidavit by BCSO Agent Dylan Weber, deputies were called at about 2:34 a.m. Oct. 24 to a home on Monroe Avenue in Cocoa after a report of a shooting. They found a woman with a gunshot wound to her left shoulder. Brevard County Fire Rescue took her to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.

The woman told investigators that Kelly’s boyfriend picked her up around 1:20 a.m. and drove to a friend’s home in Port St. John, where he backed the car into a field, the affidavit says. She said a woman later identified as Kelly walked around to the passenger side and fired one shot through the window. The boyfriend then drove her back to the Monroe Avenue home, according to the affidavit.

Investigators placed the shooting in a grass field near the 6500 block of Bamboo Avenue, where deputies found tire impressions and a single 9 mm shell casing. Deputies found the boyfriend’s Volkswagen Passat, which Kelly described as her car, at the couple’s Cocoa apartment complex. Its front passenger window was shattered and there was a bloodstain on the center console, the affidavit says.

When deputies went to the apartment, Kelly answered the door. While she was being detained, she said she had shot into the vehicle and that the gun was inside, the affidavit says.

In a recorded interview after waiving her rights, Kelly told investigators her boyfriend had taken her car without permission. She said she took an Uber to Port St. John with a Glock 43 in her purse to find it. She said that as she reached the passenger side and the car began to move, she pulled the gun and fired, investigators wrote.

The affidavit says Kelly first described the shot as “self-defense.” It says she later told investigators she wanted to “make a point” because she believed her boyfriend was cheating on her again. Investigators also cite text messages on the boyfriend’s phone in which Kelly wrote that she “waws finna shoot sum,” which the affidavit interprets as meaning she was going to shoot someone. Investigators say she had permanently deleted the messages from her own phone.

The boyfriend, who also gave a sworn statement, has not been charged, FLORIDA TODAY and The Space Coast Rocket reported. He told investigators Kelly had allowed him to take the car.

The woman was treated at Holmes Regional Medical Center and survived, according to reports on the affidavit. Her current condition has not been publicly released.

In court

Kelly made her first court appearance Oct. 25. She was declared indigent, and the Office of the Public Defender was appointed to represent her, The Space Coast Rocket reported from the docket. The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Michelle Naberhaus.

Her arraignment is set for Nov. 24 at the Moore Justice Center in Viera.

The charges are accusations. Kelly is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The allegations come from a law enforcement affidavit and have not been tested in court. 321 Daily did not seek comment from the Sheriff’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office or the people involved.