Beck was sentenced to 30 years for the second-degree murder of Michael Conrad.

A 30-year term after a second-degree murder conviction is the court's judgment. It is not a first-degree finding. Law&Crime reported Judge Philippe Matthey imposed 30 years after the July verdict that rejected first-degree murder. Beck admitted firing the shot. The jury's second-degree finding and the judge's term are the judgment on that count.

Law&Crime reported that Stuart Beck, 25, was sentenced by Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Philippe Matthey to 30 years in prison after a Pinellas County jury in July convicted him of second-degree murder in the July 6, 2022 death of Michael Conrad, 20. The Tampa Bay Times reported the sentencing hearing on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. A sentence after a jury verdict is the judgment on that count.

Law&Crime, citing Clearwater police accounts and trial coverage, reported the shooting happened in the early morning of July 6, 2022, at Bay Cove Apartments on 19135 U.S. Highway 19 North in Clearwater. Police said Beck broke down the front door of an apartment and shot Conrad, who was taken to Morton Plant Hospital and later died, FOX 13 Tampa Bay and WFLA reported in 2022. Beck did not dispute that he fired the fatal shot, Law&Crime reported.

Law&Crime reported Beck's account changed over time. From arrest through trial he had insisted the shooting was accidental. On the stand he told prosecutors the shooting was intentional in the sense that he meant for the gun to go off, saying, "I didn't mean to kill him, but I meant for the gun to go off." He argued self-defense after a prior beating and a bedroom struggle for the gun. Prosecutors pointed to the kicked-in door and a pistol pressed to Conrad's chest, telling jurors that was murder, not self-defense, Law&Crime reported. The jury found second-degree murder and rejected first-degree, Law&Crime reported.

Law&Crime reported the woman at the center of the dispute testified the couple had broken up months earlier but that Beck's name remained on the lease, and that she had started seeing Conrad while still occasionally seeing Beck. Defense attorney Scott Tremblay called it a heat-of-passion love triangle and argued manslaughter at best, Law&Crime reported. At sentencing, Conrad's aunt told the court, "You didn't just kill him; you killed laughter in our home," the Tampa Bay Times reported, as credited by Law&Crime. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.