This was supposed to be a week of celebration for Derek and Samantha Omasta.
The couple learned last month that Samantha was expecting a child. They were going to announce it to family and friends on Thursday, her 32nd birthday.
Instead, she started her day at a funeral home to view her husband’s body.
Police say Derek Omasta, 31, was shot by a neighbor Saturday night as the two men argued about parking in front of the duplexes where they lived. Samantha Omasta was standing a few feet away as the argument unfolded and saw her husband fall.
She said she still doesn’t understand why the dispute started and then escalated so quickly.
“None of this makes any sense,” she said in an interview Thursday. “None of it.”
Deshon Powers, 26, was booked into Pinellas County Jail on Sunday on a charge of first-degree murder. [Pinellas County Sheriff's Office]
The confrontation between Derek Omasta and 26-year-old Deshon Powers began about 11 p.m. with a “verbal argument over a parking dispute” in front of the duplex where Powers was staying at 1133 Grove St., according to an arrest report. The Omastas live in a duplex next door.
At one point in the argument, Powers entered his apartment, retrieved a handgun and came back outside, the report says. As the two men continued to argue, witnesses told police, Powers shot Omasta. No other details have been released. Detectives were still investigating Thursday.
The Omastas moved into their duplex apartment less than a month ago. Their landlord owns another duplex building next door where Powers was staying and rents that unit to short-term tenants, Samantha Omasta said . The buildings share a narrow driveway, but the landlord told the Omastas they could park in the driveway and the short-term renters would park on the street, she said.
When the couple returned home from the store Saturday night, another car was parked in the driveway. Derek Omasta squeezed around and parked in front of it, his wife said.
Samantha Omasta remembers a woman starting to yell at them. The woman appeared intoxicated, stumbling and slurring her words. Powers, who also appeared intoxicated, joined in the argument, Omasta said.
Omasta heard her husband say he would call their landlord, then she felt him push her, apparently out of harm’s way. She saw three flashes from what she soon realized was the muzzle of a gun.
“It happened so fast, I turned and he was falling,” she said.
Deshon Powers, 26, fatally shot 31-year-old Derek Omasta in front of this Clearwater duplex on Grove Street night after an argument over parking escalated, police say. [CAITLIN JOHNSTON | Times]
Derek Omasta died at Morton Plant Hospital. Samantha was at the Clearwater police station when she learned he didn’t make it.
Samantha Omasta said neither she nor her husband knew Powers or the woman.
“This man deserves to be in prison,” she said. “He took a life for no reason.”
Records show Powers was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on Sunday morning and released late Monday night after posting $750,000 bail. He is required to wear an ankle monitor as a condition of his release.
When a reporter visited this week, no one answered the door of the unit where Powers was living.
His legal team plans to “vigorously” defend him, said Theresa Jean-Pierre Coy, one of his three attorneys.
“We believe the first-degree murder charge is premature given information that we know was available to law enforcement at the time,” Coy said. She called her client “a really nice young man with a supportive family.”
Powers has a few previous arrests but none for crimes of violence, Florida records show. In 2016, he pleaded guilty in Hillsborough County to providing false information to a law enforcement officer in a capital case. A judge withheld adjudication and sentenced Powers to community service and 18 months of probation, records show.
After some legal problems of his own, Derek Omasta had gotten his life back on track, his wife said.
Born and raised in Pinellas County, Omasta was 24 when he was sentenced in 2011 to two years in state prison for carrying a concealed weapon and illegally possessing a firearm, records show.
His daughter from a previous relationship, born after his release, is now 6.
“He did a 180 after his daughter was born,” Samantha Omasta said. “He used his past to become a better person.”
Derek and Samantha were friends for about a dozen years before they started dating early last year. They married in March.
She described her husband as hard-working, loyal and respectful. He was working 60 to 70 hours a week at Florida Anchor and Barrier, a Palm Harbor company that repairs and reinforces manufactured homes, she said.
“I just want people to know he was a good man," she said.
She hopes her new baby is a boy so he can carry on her husband’s name.
Times senior news researcher Caryn Baird and staff writer Caitlin Johnston contributed to this report.
Widow of parking spot shooting victim speaks out in Clearwater
PINELLAS COUNTY
by: Chip Osowski
Posted: Sep 7, 2019 / 06:05 PM EDT / Updated: Sep 7, 2019 / 06:10 PM EDT
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Samantha Omasta is angry and upset. She finds it hard to describe her emotions these days.
“I’ve spent this whole week crying,” said Omasta, after she learned the man accused of killing her husband was being released from jail. “I broke down and I was shaking and I was crying. And I still can’t believe it. It’s just unreal. He had no time to sit and think about what he did.”
Last Saturday night, 31-year-old Derek Omasta was pulling into his driveway on Grove Street in Clearwater, when another car was parked in his spot. He exchanged words with 26-year-old Deshon Powers. Clearwater police say Powers went into his residence and grabbed a gun and shot Omasta. Omasta died from his injuries.
The day after the shooting, Powers’ roommate and friend Scarlet Knott described what she witnessed.
“All of a sudden, right when I turned my head, I seen him shoot the gun really fast,” said Knott. “And I seen the guy like get shot right here and then he falls. That was like the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”
Police arrested Powers and charged him with first-degree murder. He was initially held without bond, but at his first appearance the next day, the judge reduced his bond to $750,000 and deputies released him hours later.
Samantha Omasta, who is pregnant with Derek’s child, can’t believe her husband is gone.
“He just wanted a good family life,” said Samantha. “Everyone was always like, he’s so polite. He’ll hold the door for you. He is respectful to his elders.”
She plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Powers and attend every one of his criminal proceedings.
“I will be at every court hearing. I will be at every single moment,” said Samantha Omasta. “Because he is going to know if I have to suffer, he’s going to have to suffer too. It’s not right.”
https://www.wfla.com/news/pinellas-county/widow-of-parking-spot-shooting-victim-speaks-out/
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that cac got convicted
hope the breh beats the case even though it's not looking too likely for him 
