CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — A Citrus County man was sentenced Friday to prison after prosecutors said he fired multiple shots at utility workers who were attempting to restore power during a 2025 outage call.
Judge Kristie Healis sentenced 30-year-old Immanuel Zachariah Smith to five years in the Florida Department of Corrections followed by two years of felony probation, according to the Office of the State Attorney for Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit.
A jury found Smith guilty on July 16 of two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
“This sentencing is not shocking considering the severity of the crime committed by this defendant,” State Attorney Bill Gladson said in a statement. “Linemen shouldn't have to worry about being shot at while simply doing their jobs.”
According to prosecutors, Citrus County deputies responded December 5, 2025, to a home off North Nicosia Point in Dunnellon after receiving reports of a shooting. Investigators said two electric cooperative linemen had arrived in a marked bucket truck with flashing yellow lights to repair a power outage.
While inspecting a power pole near the property line, Smith yelled obscenities at the workers, accused them of trespassing and fired several shots. Prosecutors said the workers hid behind a nearby recreational vehicle and repeatedly yelled, “Power company,” but Smith responded that he did not care, according to a news release.
Deputies later determined the workers had not entered Smith’s property and were performing their duties near the fence line, according to the state attorney’s office.
Smith told investigators he retrieved a gun after seeing the workers and fired shots into the ground after confronting them. He was arrested at the scene.
The state attorney’s office credited the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and utility companies Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative and SECO for assisting in the case.
"Violence against our linemen and employees is never acceptable. They already have one of the hardest jobs in the world working on high voltage power lines," said Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative executive vice-president and general manager David Lambert II in a statement.
"I personally went out there that night to see the conditions of where these employees were working. They were never on the defendant's property. With the company truck's lights flashing, there's no way this defendant didn't know this was an electric truck - it's clearly identifiable."
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