Brooksville man gets 35 years for attempted murder in motel shooting

A Hernando County court sentenced Joshua Worley to 35 years in the Florida Department of Corrections for attempted murder in the Sunset Motel shooting on South Broad Street in Brooksville.

The sentence, imposed June 15, included a 25-year minimum mandatory term, according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies identified Worley, a Brooksville man born Dec. 22, 1990, as the person who fired a shotgun during the altercation that led to the Nov. 27, 2024, shooting.

Deputies responding to the Sunset Motel found a victim suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Law enforcement gave life-saving aid at the scene before the person was taken to a local trauma center for emergency treatment.

Investigators said Worley ran on foot after the shooting but was quickly located and taken into custody by Hernando County deputies. The sheriff’s office said Worley was also a convicted felon and unlawfully possessed firearms and ammunition at the time of the shooting.

The case moved through Hernando County’s justice system over the next 19 months before the sentencing brought the prosecution to a close. In a June 23 update, the sheriff’s office credited deputies, detectives and prosecutors for resolving the case, underscoring how the shooting at the South Broad Street motel was handled as a serious violent crime with a long prison term attached.

For the Brooksville neighborhood around the Sunset Motel corridor, the sentence closes one of the county’s more serious recent gun cases. The judgment leaves Worley facing decades behind bars while the victim continues recovery after a shooting that began as an altercation and ended with an attempted murder conviction.