South Florida agent’s killer claims self-defense in court hearing

Raymond Reese killed Sara Trost while the real estate agent was waiting to do a showing. Now he’s claiming Trost threatened him first. The man who killed a South Florida real estate agent in 2021 is seeking to have his first-degree murder charge dropped, claiming the killing was in self-defense. Raymond Reese, 56, killed Sara Trost, then 40, while the agent was waiting to meet a potential buyer outside the home Reese once lived in. The defendant had been evicted from the home, and he’d returned to confront his landlord, whom he’d never met in person. Reese said he shot Trost, thinking it was the landlord, and immediately called 911 to report what he’d done. However, Reese has changed his account of the Dec. 23 murder, invoking the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law in court on Wednesday. Reese said he drove to his former home and accidentally clipped the side of Trost’s Jeep parked in the driveway. He said Trost was in the car and pointed a gun at him through the window, which led him to fatally shoot her. “From the time I saw the gun, instantly, fear gripped my heart,” Reese said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “I thought for sure I was going to be shot and killed.” State prosecut...