Report by Staff
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In a recent court decision, 21-year-old Kenyata Malique McCoy received a sentence of one year in the Alachua County Jail, followed by a two-year probation period. This follows his plea of nolo contendere to the charge of possessing a firearm as an adjudicated delinquent. Initially, McCoy faced accusations related to firearm possession on a school campus and grand theft of a firearm.
The arrest took place on November 8, 2025, when authorities discovered a stolen firearm inside a men’s restroom at the Broward Dining Facility on the University of Florida campus. This weapon had been taken from an unattended vehicle in Gainesville back in June 2020. McCoy was previously arrested as a juvenile in July 2020 for possessing a stolen vehicle and his involvement in several car burglaries.
When McCoy was arrested in November, he was part of a pre-trial diversion program due to an earlier arrest in April 2025 for loitering, prowling, and resisting an officer without violence. However, following his November arrest, the agreement was annulled. By January 2026, McCoy pleaded nolo contendere to these charges, and Judge Susan Miller-Jones decided to withhold adjudication of guilt, imposing a $326 fine, which McCoy has started paying.
On April 28, McCoy entered another plea of nolo contendere to the charge of possessing a firearm as an adjudicated delinquent. Despite the potential maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for this offense, the plea deal ensured that the charge of grand theft of a firearm was dropped. Judge James Colaw withheld adjudication of guilt and sentenced McCoy to 364 days in jail, followed by a probation period of two years.
