TAMPA, Fla. June 9 -- Charges were dropped Friday against the owners of a gun shop that sold a handgun to a man accused of slaying five people in a workplace shooting at Tampa.
James and Sonia Simms had no comment for reporters as they left the Hillsborough County Courthouse.
Both of them could have faced one year in prison as owners of a gun shop where Silvio Izqueirdo-Leyva allegedly bought a 9mm semiautomatic Lorcin pistol.
On December 30, 1999, Izquierdo-Leyva, an employee of the Tampa Radisson Harbor Inn, walked into the hotel and allegedly shot five people to death.
Izquierdo-Leyva sits in a Hillsborough County jail, awaiting his first-degree murder trial.
Mike Beniton, the Simms attorney, told local media that as a result of the sale of the weapon to the suspect, the Simms were getting out of the gun business.
Robert Simms was the person who sold the handgun to Izquierdo-Leyva on January 2, 1999 at a gun shop located in a Tampa flea market. Prosecutors said Izquierdo-Leyva skipped one of the questions on the form required for purchase.
"Just because they let him leave a space blank on the gun application form doesn't mean that they should go to prison," said Beniton.
Prosecutors didn't agree.
"Despite this (dismissal), we still need to send a message to gun dealers that they must be responsible," countered Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Murphy.