Angela Corey

Angela Corey (born October 31, 1954) is a former Florida State's Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, which includes Duval, Nassau and Clay counties—including Jacksonville and the core of its metropolitan area.

Corey was hired by Ed Austin in 1981 during his tenure as State Attorney from 1975 to 1991, and remained an Assistant State Attorney after Harry Shorstein was appointed by Governor Lawton Chiles in 1991.

During her 34 years as a prosecutor, she tried several hundred cases, which includes more than 60 homicides.

In 1996, her primary responsibility became homicide prosecutions, but she also supervised lawyers in the Felony division.

Shorstein changed Corey's work assignment in 2005 from director of the Gun Crime Unit to director of the County Court, which handles misdemeanors.

In that position, she trained newly hired lawyers to be prosecutors.

She previously served as Juvenile division supervisor.

Corey made the decision to run for the office of State Attorney in 2006.

After her candidacy became known, her working relationship with Shorstein became difficult.

He terminated her employment in November 2006.

Afterwards, she was hired by John Tanner, State Attorney for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, to perform the same job functions, working homicide cases in St. Johns County.

The following day, Shorstein called a news conference and announced that he would retire at the end of his term and not run for re-election in 2008.

In that election, Shorstein supported his chief assistant, Jay Plotkin.

On August 26, 2008, Corey defeated Plotkin with more than 64% of the votes cast.

Upon taking office, Corey terminated 10 assistant state attorneys, as well as "half of the office’s investigators, two-fifths of its victim advocates, a quarter of its 35 paralegals, and 48 other support staff — more than one-fifth of the office."

In 2009, 6,184 juvenile cases were opened.

In 2010, the Florida Times-Union reported that Corey sent 230 juvenile felony cases to adult court in 2009.

This was twice the number of juvenile felony cases placed in adult court in the years prior to Corey becoming State Attorney.

After Corey took office, the number of juvenile arrests dropped in half.

In 2011 Corey's office oversaw a case in which 12-year-old Cristian Fernandez was arrested for the murder of his two-year-old brother.

Corey stated that because the juvenile system is not equipped to handle cases as serious as murder, the case was transferred to adult court.

A grand jury indicted Fernandez on (adult) charges of first degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

From the beginning of the case, Corey stated her office would not be seeking a life sentence in this case.

Corey also noted that the juvenile system was inadequate to handle a crime of this magnitude.

Corey was catapulted into the national spotlight on March 22, 2012, when Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that she would be the newly assigned State Attorney investigating the shooting death of Trayvon Martin (replacing State Attorney Norm Wolfinger).

On March 22, 2012, Florida governor Rick Scott appointed Angela Corey as Special Prosecutor to investigate the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.

On the evening of February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida, George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer armed with a 9mm Kel-Tec pistol, shot to death Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, in a gated community.

In 2013, Fernandez pleaded guilty to manslaughter as a juvenile (to be incarcerated until age 19 in juvenile facilities) and to aggravated battery as an adult but without adjudication (ensuring no felony record if he completes 5 years of probation successfully after release).

In 2014, that number dropped to 3,161.

The number of juvenile cases transferred to adult court also dropped.

In FY 2014-15, Corey's office ranked seventh in the state, out of 20 circuits, in juvenile direct files.

State Attorney Corey spent more than a million dollars in FY 14-15 to run juvenile and adult diversion programs, meaning that defendant's cases are handled out of court.

She was elected in 2008 as the first woman to hold the position, and was defeated on August 30, 2016 by Melissa Nelson, the second woman to hold the position.

On August 30, 2016, Corey lost her re-election primary to Republican challenger and former Nassau County prosecutor Melissa Nelson by nearly 50,000 votes, a margin of 38 percentage points.

The granddaughter of Syrian immigrants, Corey was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, where she attended Englewood High School.

Her parents are Tom Corey Jr. and Lorraine (Lewis) Corey.

Her father's family owned the Corey Supermarket in Jacksonville, and her father became an executive at JEA in Jacksonville.

After graduation, she majored in marketing at Florida State University before she decided to try a legal career.

After receiving her Juris Doctor degree at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law, she did legal research while preparing for the Florida bar examination, then spent 18 months with Howell & Howell, PA (trial attorneys).

She later became board certified in criminal trial law.