Jury convicts Florida man for 2024 shooting inside Columbia restaurant

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A jury found a Florida man guilty Wednesday on charges related to a 2024 shooting inside a Columbia restaurant.

After a two-day trial and several hours of deliberations, jurors convicted Alexis Gonzalez, 38, of assault and armed criminal action. Gonzalez was acquitted of unlawful use of a weapon.

Gonzalez, 38, of Orlando, Florida, was accused of shooting Gary Bitsicas in the face on Aug. 17, 2024.

Gonzalez claimed that he was acting in self-defense and in defense of his girlfriend. Prosecutors argued that Gonzalez re-entered the restaurant with his gun and the intention to shoot and harm Bitsicas following a confrontation outside of the restaurant.

The victim of a 2024 shooting inside a Buffalo Wild Wings in Columbia testified Wednesday that he lost his left eye to a bullet.

The shooting inside the Buffalo Wild Wings followed an altercation outside of the restaurant between Bitsicas and Gonzalez's girlfriend because she and Gonzalez allegedly didn't pay their bar tab. The couple tried to walk out after a bartender cut Gonzalez off for being too drunk, prosecutors allege. The state says the shooting was intentional, but Gonzalez's defense says the shot was fired accidentally.

Bitsicas testified that he regretted the encounter, which prosecutors and the defense played on video in court.

“I’m ashamed, I am. I shouldn’t have called her names. I should have just recorded and shut up," Bitsicas said.

The defense suggested Bitsicas' behavior when he returned inside after the fight had been broken up outside painted a different picture.

"When you walked back inside to your friends and flexed your muscles, you were acting like you had just won a fight?" said Jeff Hilbrenner, Gonzalez's attorney.

Myra Rodriguez, Gonzalez's girlfriend, also testified Wednesday and described feeling terrified during the encounter.

"He was just too close to me. I didn't feel safe," she said. "He was calling me a dumb c*nt and saying that I was walking out on a tab when I wasn't trying to. I was just looking for the person I came to the restaurant with so we could fix this issue."

Rodriguez said Bitsicas started to hit her as well.

"The minute I pushed the phone away he used his forearm and pushed me up against the wall, he had it on my neck," Rodriguez said. "Then he punched me in my ear, he was grabbing me by my neck and at a certain point he was grabbing the top of my hair and pushing me down."

Photos were shown of marks and injuries Rodriguez sustained in her fight with Bitsicas like a bloody ear and scratches on her neck area. Rodriguez had taken a phone call from Gonzalez during the beginning of her confrontation with Bitsicas. Gonzalez testified Wednesday he heard his girlfriend on the phone say Bitsicas was "beating her" and ran back over to the Buffalo Wild Wings parking lot to intervene.

That's when two other men, believed to be with Bitsicas also jumped in. Gonzalez testified this led him to feeling outnumbered and in fear of his safety and that is why he brought the gun with him into the bar.

Rodriguez testified in the midst of the fight her phone had fell on the ground, where Bitsicas picked it up and then brought it inside with him.

Bitsicas explained his actions after returning back inside as him feeling like he had "just survived a beating." He also testified that he had drunk several beers that night.

"I had got the evidence that was necessary to hold them accountable," Bitsicas said.

The defense also questioned Bitsicas movement in the direction of Gonzalez when Gonzalez came back inside after grabbing his gun. Bitsicas said he was trying to get to the front entrance to leave and Gonzalez was in his path. Gonzalez testified that he was only looking to get his girlfriend's phone back and verbally confront Bitsicas, but said Bitsicas charged at him inside the restaurant.

"The minute that I turned and looked up I seen 6'2, 280 lb. Gary coming at me at a high speed," Gonzalez said. "I started to feel his hands grabbing on me and I immediately reached for the gun because he was twice my size and I don't know who was behind him, I was outnumbered. So I reached over my head and pistol whipped him on the head with the gun."

Bitsicas later testified he was concerned Gonzalez would possibly hurt others in the restaurant.

"I was protecting the people behind me, I thought he was coming for the bartender, and I was protecting everybody in that restaurant," Bitsicas said.

"Is it a surprise to you that the owner of that cell phone, or the boyfriend of the owner of that cell phone, would come looking for that cell phone?" Hilbrenner asked Bitsicas.

"It wouldn't surprise me, no," Bitsicas responded.

Bitsicas testified that his memory of the incident stops right before the gun was fired. Gonzalez testified that his past military training would never allow him to intentionally shoot a gun in the manner the state claims he did.

"You would never swing a gun to shoot and kill someone. I hit Gary over the head with the gun and the bullet ejected. That is a gun with no safety," Gonzalez said.

The penalty phase will begin Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Gonzalez faces up to 30 years in prison.