Investigators say Stephanie Johnson admitted firing the shot, but investigators still sought records, forensic findings and witness accounts to reconstruct the killing.
STARKE, Fla. — Stephanie Michelle Johnson was charged with second-degree murder after authorities say she acknowledged shooting her live-in boyfriend, but Bradford County investigators continued collecting evidence from the home rather than treating her reported admission as the final word on what happened.
The prosecution stems from the Aug. 31 death of 41-year-old David James Wroblewski at a home on Meadows Drive in Starke. Deputies found him shot in the abdomen on a bed after responding shortly after 5:30 a.m. Johnson, 42, was encountered outside and detained. Local reports later cited jail records showing that she had been booked on a second-degree murder charge and held without bond at the time of those reports. The charge is an accusation; it does not establish Johnson’s guilt.
From the first hours, investigators had several categories of evidence to reconcile. Deputies recovered a firearm. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement assisted with processing the scene. Sheriff Gordon Smith said detectives would look at surveillance footage connected with the residence, interview witnesses and await findings from the medical examiner. Smith said authorities believed the relevant physical scene was confined to the master bedroom. The public reports reviewed for this story do not include a complete forensic report or final medical examiner findings, leaving important evidentiary details outside the public record.
The initial alert also created a timeline independent of Johnson’s later interview. Authorities said one of her younger children contacted an older sibling and reported that their mother had said she killed Wroblewski. The older child then contacted authorities, according to local reports, and the emergency call was routed to Bradford County. Deputies arrived at the home and found Johnson outside. The sheriff’s office said one of her first comments linked the incident to several days of arguments between the couple.
Officers then entered the residence and found Wroblewski on the bed. Deputies attempted lifesaving measures before emergency medical workers took over, but he died. The location of his body and the wound were among the first objective facts investigators could compare with Johnson’s statements. Smith said the weapon was recovered, although authorities did not initially describe in detail where it was located. Detectives kept the home secured while evidence technicians worked through the bedroom and other relevant areas.
Johnson later spoke to detectives after receiving Miranda warnings, according to a probable cause affidavit reported by Law&Crime. She said she and Wroblewski had been a couple for about four years and that their relationship had worsened recently. She described repeated arguing over the days before his death. At one point, she said, Wroblewski screamed at her through the night. Investigators nevertheless wrote that Johnson could not provide a clear chronological timeline for all the events she recounted, making corroborating evidence particularly important.
Her description of the shooting itself was more specific. Johnson said she and Wroblewski were in bed during an argument when she retrieved a firearm from a nightstand. According to the affidavit, Wroblewski then told her to shoot him. Investigators allege she did. Johnson told detectives she was not afraid for her life during the encounter and said Wroblewski had never been physically violent toward her. Those statements are included in the police account of the case; they have not been tested through cross-examination or a trial.
Detectives also asked about the period after the shot, and Johnson gave an account that became a prominent part of public reporting. She said she heard the gunfire, noticed a burning odor and became increasingly anxious. According to the affidavit, she told investigators she took a diazepam pill and smoked part of Wroblewski’s marijuana joint. Johnson also said she and Wroblewski had been naked because they had been intimate earlier and that she put his underwear on him after the shooting. Investigators documented those statements while reconstructing what happened before others entered the bedroom.
A reported admission can be important evidence, but the sheriff’s comments made clear that detectives were still investigating causation, sequence and corroboration. Smith said publicly that there was little mystery about who fired the shot because Johnson had acknowledged doing so. The remaining work involved determining the circumstances surrounding that act and building a legally supportable case. Early statements from the sheriff’s office said exact charges would be determined after further investigation. By later that day, Johnson had been booked on the second-degree murder count.
The situation of the children added another set of witnesses and concerns, though officials did not publicly detail what each one saw or heard. Their communications triggered the police response. Smith said their welfare became an immediate priority once deputies secured the residence. A victim advocate assisted while investigators worked inside, and officials sought a safe placement with family. Authorities have appropriately withheld identifying details about the minors from the public reports reviewed for this story.
Investigators also gathered context from the surrounding neighborhood, but those observations were kept separate from the physical evidence. Smith said neighbors viewed the family as good neighbors and did not report routinely hearing arguments. Local reports said law enforcement had no known record of repeated domestic calls to the residence. That background may help explain why the shooting surprised people nearby, but it neither proves nor disproves Johnson’s account that the relationship had been deteriorating inside the home.
The legal posture requires a similar distinction between what Johnson is accused of doing and what prosecutors can prove. Authorities allege that she intentionally fired the shot that killed Wroblewski and charged her with second-degree murder. The publicly reported evidence includes her statements, the recovered weapon, the bedroom scene, witness information and investigative materials still being analyzed at the time of the initial reports. The defense will have the opportunity to contest that evidence, challenge its interpretation and present other information as the case moves through court.
Several questions therefore remain outside the confirmed public record. Published reports reviewed for this story do not provide the complete autopsy findings, the full contents of any surveillance footage, a comprehensive transcript of Johnson’s interview or later testimony from witnesses. They also do not establish a later plea or adjudication. Those gaps are significant because the criminal charge must ultimately rest on admissible evidence rather than the abbreviated accounts released during the opening days of the investigation.
No final resolution or subsequent court date has been identified in the public reporting reviewed for this story. Johnson remains accused, not convicted, and the evidence gathered after deputies entered the Meadows Drive home will determine how the homicide case develops in court.
Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.