Ruskin Ice Cream Truck Driver Faces Life In Prison Following Murder Conviction Tuesday

TAMPA, FL — Following a three-week-long trial in Hillsborough, a jury found a Ruskin ice cream truck owner guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder on Tuesday.

After a dozen years spent in the Hillsborough County Jail, Michael Keetley will finally learn his fate for the shooting of six people in Ruskin on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, 2010.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella has scheduled Keetley's sentencing for May 26. The first-degree murder charges carry mandatory life sentences.

According to the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office, Keetley shot six people on Thanksgiving Day 2010, killing brothers Juan and Sergio Guitron, aka Magic and Spider, and badly injuring Richard Cantu, Daniel Beltran, Ramon Galan and Gonzalo Guevara.

Keetley was arrested in December 2010 after one of the survivors picked his photo out of an array. The witness positively identified Keetley as the man who pulled up to a home on Ocean Mist Court around 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving, got out of his minivan carrying a pump-action rifle and ordered a group of men to kneel down. He then shot each man execution-style, according to prosecutors.

Keetley was familiar to Ruskin residents as the "ice cream man" who drove a purple ice cream truck around Ruskin neighborhoods.

Prosecutors said Keetley's motive for the shootings was pure revenge.

On Jan. 23, 2010, Keetley was driving his ice cream truck on Old U.S. 41 when two masked men robbed him of $12 and then shot him five times.

Keetley survived the gunshot wounds but required several surgeries. The community held several fundraisers to help cover Keetley's medical expenses.

Prosecutors said Keetley became frustrated when the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office didn't arrest anyone for the robbery and shooting, and decided to take matters into his own hands.

All he had to go on in his search for the robbers was the name "Creeper" and the road where "Creeper" supposedly lived, "Ocean Mist."

When he showed up on Ocean Mist Court on Thanksgiving 2010, Keetley was wearing a shirt with the word "Sheriff" on it and asked a neighbor where he could find someone named "Creeper."

This was not the first time Keetley faced a jury on these charges. In 2020, a jury was unable to decide on a verdict and the judge declared a mistrial. The jury in this case deliberated more than 12 hours over three days.

“I am proud of our talented prosecutors for seeing this difficult case to the end in honor of the victims of this heinous killer," said Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez. "We appreciate the jury for their time, attention and dedication to this complicated case."

Keetley has been held at the Hillsborough County Jail throughout the 12 years he's awaited trial.

"Today is about the victims, all six of the victims,” Lopez said. “It is our office’s hope and prayer that today’s verdict will begin to bring closure for the nightmare that they have all had to live for the last 12 years.”

Keetley's defense attorney, Richard Escobar, was never able to establish if any of the six men were responsible for robbing and shooting Keetley.

Paz Quezada, the mother of the two murder victims, wept.