Defendants’ self-defeating mathematical problems can occasionally baffle judges, prosecutors, and everyone else in the courtroom. However, the misfortune of the offenders is not completely their own fault, particularly when they are on probation, a system that seems to be cynically set up to make probationers fail. One defendant of this type is Michael D. Angelo Gilbert.
Because he has already served nearly 15 years, Gilbert entered a plea this morning to a 20-year jail term for a probation violation, which actually amounts to just over five years.
However, Gilbert declined a supposedly worldwide offer to serve only four years and simultaneously settle a different case in Volusia County. Prosecutors are pursuing Gilbert for failing to register as a sex offender after Gilbert himself informed police of his whereabouts, which raises questions about the case’s impartiality and seems more nefarious than Gilbert’s alleged offense.
Despite the fact that he has been offered two years of prison time for the accusations, Gilbert wants to fight them in Volusia County. If he is found guilty, he could face up to nine years in prison, which would at least quadruple the sentence he entered this morning. If the Volusia judge determines that Gilbert should serve the two sentences in order, it would triple.
Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis didn’t understand. Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols didn’t get it. Gilbert, however, kept his ground and turned down a compromise that would have reduced the amount of time he currently faces serving.
You know me so well, Mr. Lewis. “I’ve made my decision,” Gilbert declared.
Lewis was well familiar with him. It still does. The two have been together for decades. Gilbert is not yet 39 years old. Next Monday, he will celebrate the most recent of his numerous birthdays in prison. He was found guilty of molestation of a young adolescent when he was eighteen and placed under home arrest. He received his first prison sentence for violating his community control. As recently as 2023, he challenged the designation that he was a sex offender.
He became acquainted with Brandon Washington, the former Bloods gang leader who is currently serving a life sentence after being found guilty of home invasion, murder, racketeering conspiracy, and other offenses, shortly after his release in 2007. Gilbert helped authorities convict Washington, which is why he lives in constant terror.
In particular, he collaborated with Lewis. Despite being a member of Washington’s gang, he was found guilty on lesser offenses, such as drug possession and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and was given a 15-year jail sentence. He finished the prison portion of his sentence in June 2021, earning credit for time spent in local jails and gain time, or time off for good behavior. He was still subject to a 10-year probationary period.
He called the police last September 12 after relocating to the Bird’s Nest motel in Daytona Beach, fearing for his safety. He admitted to being a former member of a gang to the police. When the police arrived, they arrested him for not updating his driver’s license and registering his new phone number, which he had used to call the police as required for sexual offenders, even though he had just purchased the phone two days prior and registered his new address with the police.
He was ultimately found guilty of three third-degree felonies, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years in jail, for failing to register as a sex offender. His new charges resulted in a probation violation in Flagler County due to the snowball effect of self-perpetuating infractions in the legal system. His cases from 2008 and 2009 were reopened. That is the reason Gilbert appeared in court both this morning and last week. He hadn’t fully placed it there himself, if he had a chip on his shoulder.
Now was the moment to settle everything, and Lewis was extending the invitation. Gilbert was unsure last week, therefore he did it again today after doing so at a hearing last week. Gilbert was determined to fight his case in Volusia, but he had little interest in challenging the settlement in Flagler, especially since Lewis would have requested 30 years in prison had he done so.
Lewis clarified that if he is found guilty in Volusia County, he will only receive credit for about nine months there and will likely spend nine or ten years behind bars. Just so you know, you can end up spending an additional nine or ten years on top of what we have here if you go down there. I’m not sure whether you want to consider that with Miss Davison, but I know you have, and I don’t want you to be burnt and end up serving an additional ten years in prison.
Gilbert was represented by Courtney Davison, an assistant public defender. He refused to allocate funds for the Volusia case. He was prepared to enter a plea in the Flagler cases.
For this case alone, the judge told him, “I would be willing to do 20 years with the credit for the 14.76 in, so that basically would you be doing about five years.” Go ahead and fight what you want to fight in Volusia if that is what you want to do in order to get this issue settled. Mr. Lewis, however, has given you four years to settle them all. However, I am only here for Flagler, and I have no issue with you contesting that case in Volusia if it means that much to you.
Lewis claimed that everyone, even those in charge of the Volusia case aside from Gilbert, was on board to complete the task in the allotted four years. Lewis was open to reducing the three sex offender registration charges to just one.
The judge said, “Wow, you do a lot less time by accepting Mr. Lewis’ offer than mine.”
“No,” Gilbert replied. After entering a guilty plea to the Flagler probation violation, he was formally given a 20-year sentence with credit for nearly 15. In order to give his mother, who is ill, an opportunity to visit him, he hoped to serve his sentence at the Volusia County jail while that case was being handled and before he was sent back to prison. However, the judge warned that he might not get his wish because he is likely to be taken by the state jail system and returned to Volusia County only for court appearances.
