Julio Foolio Murder Trial: Full Penalty Phase Closings

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: All right, we are ready to proceed. Mr. Harmon. Yes. [00:00:13] Speaker 2: Counsel? All four of these defendants, they all sit over here at this L-shaped table. They sit over here and they are convicted. Because last week, 12 of you went back there and you came back with a just and a true verdict, convicting them. And they sit there in their guilt. They are convicted. Convicted conspirators, convicted killers, they are convicted murderers. There is no doubt about that. What this is about is an entirely different thing. What you're here to decide today and going into tomorrow is what is the appropriate sentence for these defendants. They have been convicted, as the state told you in its opening statement, of planning and acting as a team in a concerted effort with one common goal, murder. Murder. The most evil and the most wicked crime that there is. The taking of another human life. And the evidence in this case has clearly demonstrated to you, I doubt any of you had any issue back there determining when you were deliberating that this was a premeditated crime. The court is going to instruct you tomorrow, when you go out after all of the closing statements, she is going to read to you again the law on premeditation. And you remember that law from last week. You remember it? There has to be enough time to allow reflection for there to be premeditation. Clearly in your verdicts, you have found that. You would not have convicted them of conspiracy because you can't conspire. You can't have four people conspiring without premeditation. Was there premeditation in this case? Yes. But there was much, much more than just simple premeditation. Because when we talk about reflections, what are we talking about reflecting, having time to reflect? We're talking about decision making. Making a decision and then acting upon that decision. That is reflecting. Solving a problem. That is reflecting. These defendants, in this case, did this for over two weeks at least, making decisions, solving problems, working through their plan. This is much more than simple premeditation. Premeditation can occur in a matter of moments. Let's look at the evidence of the heightened, heightened level of premeditation. These four defendants, by June 6th, the evidence tells us, had already planned, had already conspired, or already teaming up to snatch Charles Jones' life from him. June 6th. Do you recall this? The ex-spaces discussion that was going on between Isaiah Chance and the victim, in this case, Charles Jones. And what happens after that communication between them? That's what happens. Sean Gathright's phone has communication from his co-defendant Rashad Murphy's phone at approximately 11, 18 hours. And shortly after that recording was obtained by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 22, 36 hours. Of Isaiah Chance arguing, arguing, arguing with Charles Jones, you remember his words. Hey, Julio, how's your foot doing? Make sure, this is out of Rashad Murphy's mouth. Make sure, brah, in a good headspace, before he go with his move, we got bigger shit to tend to. They ain't worth an inward energy right now. That's directed at who? That's directed at his teammate, Sean Gathright. And what does Mr. Gathright do? 17 days before this murder happens? He likes that. He likes it. And then he replies, I ain't heard from bro today, but I'm going to check in with him. And then Rashad Murphy texts back, he's probably not going to pick up. He on IG, letting these N-words get him out of character, turned up on that MF right now. And then Mr. Gathright. Damn, all right, let me see what's up. So what does that tell us? That tells us that the plan was already in place more than 17 days before. This plan had been birthed, hatched, and formulated before June 6th, before June 6th. This conspiracy and this premeditation spoke to a much higher level of premeditation and spoke to a very, very cold-blooded motive, a planned execution. As Ms. Doherty told you last week, this was a hit. This was a hit. This kind of advanced planning, where that evil and that type of wickedness to take somebody is dwelling in a person's heart, and in this case, a team, a team of people. Problem solving, making decisions about it, working their way through this, developing the plan as they go along. A plan to not just murder, but if necessary, inflict carnage. And we saw that in the evidence. They were going to take out six, and they were going to take out whoever might be there that might be in six, because why not? And anyone else standing around, anyone else that might get in the way, that's just collateral damage. Now, why is the state going back through the facts with you? Because in the aggravating factors that you're going to be instructed on in this case, we are relying on that evidence. We are relying, as you saw, solely on our evidence from the guilt phase of this trial. Now, we did present some evidence. That evidence goes to rebut their suggestions of mental health mitigation, which you have seen have completely been rebutted and completely disproven. It is because of the extremely heightened level of premeditation in this case that the state is presenting you with the aggravating factor, one that the law speaks to, of very cold-blooded murders. The aggravating factor of cold, calculated, and premeditated, that this murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral justification. That is the aggravating factor. We see in that evidence, the ex-spaces evidence, we see that evidence of this existing weeks before, but we see more than that. We see a conspiracy where its members are trying to ensure its integrity, its secrecy, and that it stays intact, and that nothing ruins the plan. Nothing gets in the way. I want to talk and walk back through the evidence in this case with you. Let's take a look at what occurred in this case. Mr. Murphy, with his fully automatic Glock, and I'm going to come back to that, because there's a few things I'll be pointing out to you in this evidence. It's very rare, folks, that an execution is caught on video like this. Look at the teamwork. Look at the precision. Look at the efficiency. Look at the efficiency. Look at the efficiency. That evidence alone, standing alone without the ex-spaces evidence, without the Airbnb evidence of no one going through the front door, without all the other evidence, the evidence of Mr. Chance and Mr. Gathright, coolly, calmly, businesslike, loading up that Impala. Without any of that evidence, you could look at this alone, and your common sense would be screaming at you that this is the product. This type of murder, it's the product of heightened premeditation. That doesn't happen without conspiratorial premeditation. Planning. Wearing disguises to cover their identities. And not just disguises, folks. They're wearing all black to hide in the darkness, to hide their skin, to hide their faces. They're wearing hoodies. These are disguises. These are items that they brought with them as part of this plan. And this alone, this evidence in the efficiency, the positioning demonstrates the premeditation and the planning that went into this. And this evidence alone would be sufficient evidence, beyond any doubt, that this was a product of heightened, cold, calculated premeditation and murder. The tenacity that occurs here, the lack of hesitation that occurs, this is a fully formed, committed mission that they are on that is immediately executed. As soon as the opportunity presents itself, they come out of the shadows where they're hiding. And we saw Mr. Davion Murphy, who snuck down behind those cars. And you heard me asking these forensic experts, isn't that significant that he did that? That he had the mindset and cognitive ability to hide behind the cars, to avoid being detected by a very wary victim, someone who had had his life almost taken nine months before in an attempted murder that Mr. Gathright is connected to by physical scientific evidence. A very wary prey that because of their advanced planning, they were not going to allow him to get away. And we saw that in the tenacity of this, how Mr. Gathright continued in a persistent fashion, chasing after the charger, pumping rounds into it. And then we didn't even get to Davion Murphy following down behind the cars and unloading down the west side of the hotel. So this is the aggravator. The first-degree murder was committed in a cold, calculated, premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification. Cold. Cold means the murder was the product. Calm and cool reflection. Calculated means having a careful plan, a plan that is carefully constructed or prearranged designed to commit murder. In the instructions that Judge Siscoe will give you, she will read to you and you will see that is the exact same instruction you got earlier on premeditation last week. But below that is her distinguishing this aggravating factor from simple premeditation. The aggravating factor to apply has to have a heightened level of premeditation demonstrated by a substantial period of reflection. A substantial period of reflection. Without any pretense of moral or legal justification. So what does this mean? It simply means that there is no claim of justification or excuse. Even if it was insufficient to reduce the degree of the murder, that it would rebut the otherwise cold calculated or premeditated nature of this murder. Folks, there is no way to rebut the premeditated nature of this murder. There's just simply no way. There's way too much evidence of it. It is part of this. It's part and parcel of what we watched on that video. You cannot separate the two. To commit that type of crime would be impossible on the spur of the moment. That crime doesn't just speak of a lack of impulsivity. Remember hearing that term earlier in the last day or two? It doesn't just speak of a lack of impulsivity. It screams that this was extremely planned. That this was a designed mission. Rashad Murphy. Let's talk about his participation in this plan. And I'm not going to go back through the amount of evidence that I covered with you in opening. I know that was a long process. The state wanted to give you an overview of this massive case full of evidence because of the just incredible investigative efforts of the Tampa Police Department and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in this case. Mr. Murphy obtains the Chevy Cruze, the silver Chevy Cruze. That's his first part of a contribution to this case. The car that's utilized as surveillance and as a spotter car. A car that's outside of the circle. Then Mr. Murphy on his Airbnb account sending his ID and reserving that Airbnb. And now we see the teamwork coming in. Right around the same time, within minutes, you remember in the evidence, Isaiah Chance receiving a $390 payment from another gang member, an ATK gang member, J.Dot Breezy, sent to his Mr. Rich Off War cash app. And that payment is made to Airbnb. It's paid. And that is established and that's arranged. We have that done over a day before this murder happens. And then we have this video if the video of the murder itself doesn't establish how premeditated and planned, we need only look at this video. Because even if you got rid of the X spaces discussions and you didn't have the earlier in the morning paying of an Airbnb and you have these two defendants, Mr. Gathright and Mr. Chance, business life, look at them. Look at the confidence that Mr. Gathright carries with them. They could very well have been packing to go on a cruise or something and they are packing up that Impala with high-powered rifles, with ammunition, with disguises, the things, the tools they would need to carry out this mission. That's in the afternoon. That is hours, 20 hours or so before the murder happens. And then when they get to Tampa and they have to drive, remember, because this conspiracy now is traveling from Jacksonville down here to Tampa. They have to travel for three hours to get down here. And they're coordinating. we saw that in the LPR that both these cars are following and coordinating. Again, showing advanced planning. But when they get here, we see this real-time demonstration of premeditation on the part of Mr. Gathright. And I'm going to come back to that. Not too long after that, after Mr. Gathright is going through the Airbnb app and utilizing all their filters and searching and trying to find Charles Jones' Airbnb and trying to get an address for where he may be, utilizing the description that he is seeing on what's being posted by Mr. Jones. Not too long after that, we get this message from Mr. Murphy. Man, you know I want it myself. If I could, I would have had it so many hoes there. I know somebody can get it from them. Get the B&B for me, gang. They're all trying to find the Airbnb. And then, after the run to the McDonald's to get provisions for this assault team and the surveillance team and they all have a dinner, a late night dinner to make sure they got enough energy, they start coordinating. And remember in the evidence, by this point, these two defendants, Mr. Gathright and Mr. Chance, they've already gone down to teasers. They've already cased teasers. They've already checked it out to get the lay of the land. They start coordinating. Mr. Chance is not using his phone because he's going to use his girlfriend's phone. He doesn't want to use his phone. He doesn't want to be tracked and he doesn't want to be connected. So they start sharing information. Mr. Gathright stores Ms. Andrew's phone's information and his phone and a contact. They start sharing locations with each other. Now we're up to 208. they're still communicating with each other, coordinating. We see the coordination. We see Mr. Chance and his contributions starting here in the actual pursuit and the stalking and the hunting of Charles Jones. He's at teasers. As Ms. Doherty told you, he's wearing a hoodie. He's wearing a COVID mask. He's using his girlfriend as kind of a decoy or camouflage so that he's not standing around in the middle of the summer wearing a hoodie and a mask looking suspicious. It's just a young couple walking around in the parking lot and they are there and they're observing Charles Jones and his friends as they're at teasers. Still communicating. Now they're trying to get Gathright to pick up his phone, maybe trying to FaceTime him which we learned in the evidence is not collected in CDRs, call detail records and they're telling him pick up your effing phone. More coordination through the time that Mr. Jones is leaving and now he and his entourage have gone to Truth 18 and they're at Truth 18 and they're getting ready to leave from there and more coordination. Sharing location so they can follow each other which leads us to the hotel. we know from the evidence and I'm going to come back and I'm going to specifically address Mr. Gathright because I know you all have concerns about Mr. Gathright. He was 18 years old. The states never hid from that fact. Is that a mitigating factor? You're absolutely it's a mitigating factor and it's up to each of you to decide how much weight you want to give that but we need to look at what Mr. Gathright did and we need to look [00:22:22] Speaker ?: and we need to look [00:22:22] Speaker 2: at how he conducted himself in this early morning. Well past loading that Impala. That's Mr. Gathright driving that Impala and you remember the assault team never would have been able to find that hotel if Mr. Chance and Miss Andrews hadn't followed the victims stayed just enough far enough behind and tailing them so they weren't detected but able to see where they were going and relay that because Mr. Gathright coordinating with his co-conspirator in this extremely premeditated plot went directly to where the victim and his entourage had already gone. They had already pulled into the home to suites. when Mr. Gathright was nowhere to be seen Mr. Gathright immediately navigates that Impala around the north end of that hotel passing all all of those cars in that parking lot passing all of the filled parking spots as he went around the north through that complex around the Holiday Inn and back around to the west side. Now what we see in these photographs is Mr. Gathright navigating that car and making sure to do a three-point turn so he doesn't reveal their presence in this car that they have hidden that they have hidden. Now if you go back to Truth 18 which I kind of skipped over you remember Mr. Chance the surveillance team he gets out with Miss Andrews because they're just a young couple and they can get closer and make closer observation and give that intelligence to the strike team the hit team the assault team. Mr. Gathright's driving the Impala he parks across the street or parks I'm sorry right next to the strip mall where Truth 18 is but as they're getting ready to leave and they're getting information that he must have been receiving Mr. Gathright repositions across the street and pulls up to that stop sign and one thing you may have seen in the evidence he stops and then he creeps forward so that he can see around that corner and see the entourage and see the victim's car you heard Detective Ramos this detective who did this incredible job and sat on the stand as a true encyclopedia of this case telling you it is his opinion they were getting ready to possibly try an assault or to follow but he gets there and he's also now part of the surveillance and he's staging waiting here in the hotel parking lot he is taking the precautions he goes down and then he turns the car around and comes back without going around that corner and breaking a plane where they could be seen he goes up around the corner there he goes past the Tesla they park and then you have to think there's no way they were driving around Tampa in June with hoodies and masks over their face for four hours because you remember this starts at around one in the morning two in the morning and this is now 430 in the morning three and a half hours at least so they had to kit up get their hoodies on pull these masks or gaiters or whatever they're using to cover their faces Mr. Gathright has to retrieve that AR-15 and now he's handling it and they're running and they're acting as a team these three individuals that are the assault team and as I said Rashad Murphy or Davion Murphy with his ski mask on with only eye holes showing with the 300 blackout crouched down making himself unobtrusive trying to make sure that they concealed their presence because this was all predicated and designed around an ambush and you remember the state telling you in opening statements that they brought fire supremacy that was part of the plan that was part of this to bring overwhelming firepower to this situation because they weren't going to let Charles Jones get away not this time not this time they were going to take him he was not going back to Jacksonville he was going to stay here in Tampa so they bring three shooters with high powered rifles and all of this firepower in a few minutes I'm going to talk to you about another aggravating factor that deals with that but I will say it again that firepower was brought for a specific purpose to make sure he didn't escape and anyone else that got shot it didn't matter to any of these defendants not a one of them no hesitation that they were sitting in front of a hotel with a packed parking lot so now we're up to the point where they're going to commit this assault and I want each of you to consider in this evidence and I don't want to belabor the point because I think you all understand and I don't think any of you disagree that there is heightened premeditation here but the law speaks to that reflection element and that's something you need to take into account as I said it's decision making it's problem solving and you think about all of the decisions in the problem solving that goes on Mr. Gathright's use of the Airbnb app and the VRBO app and that search alone that alone I'm going to come back to that in a few minutes that sitting by itself is an overwhelming load of decision and problem solving decision making but think of all the decisions they had to make Mr. Murphy had to try to coordinate Mr. Rashad Murphy to get that cruise he had to talk to his sister or his brother's mother of his brother's children and he had to coordinate with her because someone had to go get the car either he had to go pick it up or she had to bring it to him every one of these steps required multiple smaller steps and multiple decisions and problem solving well can you drop it off we'll drive you back or can I pick it up from you and then he's got to get someone to drop him off and we know he's driving it when he goes to the Walmart and someone there is driving it and they come and pick him up when he comes out of the Walmart the night before that alone just shows another example of the problem solving the decision making and then the back and forth with Airbnb and booking the Airbnb and finding an Airbnb that just happens to be two miles from teasers and ends up being almost a mile and a third just over a mile from the murder scene but in that same area right there around Bush Gardens so now we have our assaulters these three defendants the two Murphys and Mr. Gathright and I kind of want to walk through this with you and I may have to use this laptop here to do it I want you to look at where Mr. Murphy's rounds are hitting they're hitting to the center center left of that windshield Mr. Murphy Rashad Murphy opens up first he runs out immediately starts firing with that fully automatic Glock and put several rounds tracking up the hood into that windshield watch the driver's side of the windshield and the back window of the Altima now we're seeing impacts to the driver's side and you can see the glass spraying upwards from the impacts through that automobile windshield glass and we know Kamiya Bentley is in that car on the right the Altima she's already got her foot on the brake and watch when her car starts to move first impact second impact and we know she takes the two rounds to the back of that car this is efficiency this is overwhelming firepower so Mr. Murphy Rashad Murphy has stuck his head around the corner and looked and the way that he and Mr. Gathright coordinate it's almost as if they did a countdown like a 3-2-1 or something but they come out and they take up their firing positions quickly efficiently which shows heightened premeditation and they're acting immediately watch Mr. Gathright he will not even be in a standing position before he's opening fire he is running into his position and starting to fire when his feet are moving that's how quickly they wanted to put rounds before anyone could react to them he's already firing he's still moving at that point but look where he's pointing he's pointing towards the charger and then you see his muzzle swing to the right right there he's making an intentional decision to redirect his fire after he has put two rounds through the windshield of that charger and now he's redirecting to the Altima which they thought Tafa McCray was driving a six block member but in fact Kamiya Bentley had slid into place Kamiya Bentley who was in the back seat and for some reason I don't know if you all looked at that when you were deliberating but it's almost weird the way she slides in behind Tafa as he's getting out and I believe her testimony to you was I wanted to take charge I wanted to get in the front seat she would have been in that back seat if she hadn't done that and those two rounds were centered through the rear window I'll talk about that later look at the purposeful intentional behavior of Mr. Gathright here before Mr. Murphy appears up here to Davion this perfect coordinated attack he gets hit by he runs into the tree almost falls down turns continues to fire rounds into that car now they're both firing into it almost perfect timing and now Mr. Gathright is still firing and look at where he's firing he's firing to the north northwest towards that charger but just look at the tenacity that is purpose driven behavior this was something that had been in their hearts and minds the point I'm trying to make for weeks for days to murder someone to take someone's life and you see this overwhelming firepower there was no consideration for anyone else in that area none whatsoever if they hit some six block members that's all the better and anyone who else and this is another thing when they're coming out of teasers or truth 18 Mr. Gathright sitting over there at the stop sign he sees the size of that entourage he sees how many people are involved he knows how many people are in those cars Mr. Doherty pointed this out to you look at the accuracy of those rounds into the headrests both headrests taking rounds Sean Gathright shooting an AR-15 chambered in 5.56 NATO what caliber were the two rounds pulled out of Charles Jones body well the one round what was its caliber it was a 22 caliber class 5mm class which 5.56 the other round could not they could not figure out the caliber Ms. Drew couldn't but she could tell you they had consistent rifling and they appeared to be from the same type of rifling Mr. Gathright put two 5.56 round NATO bullets into Charles Jones body we don't know about the other bullet to the chest that could have been from Rashad Murphy and it would make sense Davion Murphy look at him crouching down hurriedly getting into place running behind those cars staying concealed staying in his hiding place you remember in his area where he cannot be seen because he doesn't want to reveal that he's there they may try to go somewhere else they want them to go that direction they want them to go into that area and they don't want them to flee or have a chance to get away and then again coming back Mr. Murphy's tenacity purpose driven behavior he's not giving up he's not going to stop and then quickly back to the car does that speak to you as someone who has a cognitive impairment Rashad Murphy running back to the car the image on the right if you look at the direction of his head he's looking towards the fleeing car his direction is towards Charles Jones Charger and you can see in this image he's now moved slightly forward and he's still looking in that direction all of them were paying attention to what was going on with Charles Jones now they finally get back to Jacksonville the next day and for the first time in all the evidence the ghost is revealed Rashad Murphy in person showing up Rashad Murphy who tried to conceal to try to protect the conspiracy 17 days before when Isaiah Chance was talking to the victim and arguing with him trying to get him to stop you don't want to give us up you don't want them to know what we're up to you don't want to give them advance notice that something might happen the ghost who never appears on the ring camera at the Airbnb in Tampa that takes thoughtful deliberate action in and of itself none of these defendants appear on that ring camera on the 22nd when they get there they're going in and out all through that evening Chance and Gathrite are going down to case the teasers earlier in the evening they're leaving to go Chance is going with his girlfriend and Mr. Davion Murphy up to the McDonald's to get food and they never appear until after everything is done before I move away from the cold calculated premeditated I want to move back to Isaiah Chance and just kind of cover some of his involvement in this case we talked about this he's the one that actually pays through J. Breezy's contributions for the Airbnb he provides the Glock with the extended magazine that is utilized by Rashad Murphy in the attack he helps load the Impala now we see the photographs of him on the left that teasers on the right at truth 18 with Miss Andrews providing the essential critical on the ground real-time intelligence and reconnaissance back to the assault team there's no way as I said earlier that Mr. Gathright would have been able to find where the victim went unless he was right on their tail revealing himself the only way he knew to do it was because Mr. Chance told him and when when they needed him to come in for last second reconnaissance remember how fast after he had staged across the street at the embassy suites area at USF he comes flying back across Fowler blows that red light and pulls right in and drives right past the victim in the car that they all know is not going to be recognized that's why Mr. Rashad Murphy had to solve that problem and go get that car and now Mr. Chance is providing last minute last literally last second intelligence to the assault team so he drives in drives past goes around the corner encounters the Impala goes right past it does that three point turn and then he comes back this is him still going and then this is him coming back and we know in the evidence this is less than a minute before the attack occurs that didn't happen for no reason that was a coordinated effort and without Mr. Chance's information and intelligence to them they wouldn't have known for a fact where Charles Jones was sitting if you look at the passenger side of that charger you can see Mr. Jones red and white socks sitting up there on the dashboard moving back and forth I don't know if you saw it when you were deliberating last week but when the attack occurs you quickly see his feet drop down as he's trying to scramble into the back seat to save himself but clearly they were there for a purpose and that was to tell the assault team exactly where Charles Jones was when you're considering Mr. Chance and Mr. Gathright you need to consider their contributions to this murder and their role they played in this murder without these two defendants this never ever would have happened it never would have happened without Mr. Chance providing that real-time intelligence they would not have been able to track Charles Jones they would not have been able to orchestrate this attack Mr. Gathright we know that the attack this whole thing that day starts where it starts at the Gathright household in the Gathright household out in the suburbs in Jacksonville and again we see this extremely confident defendant Mr. Gathright loaded for bear loading up his car as if they're going on a vacation just as casual as could be without a care he and Mr. Chance are discussing how they're going to load it where they're going to put the items more problem solving more decision making back and forth and of course we know from the evidence from the search warrant that was conducted at the Gathright residence that Mr. Gathright was the armorer of this assault team he was the weapons man he provided the armament that was utilized this weapon being utilized by Davion Murphy that rifle being utilized by Mr. Gathright and you heard in the evidence from the very compelling testimony of Officer De Jesus that that rifle was being utilized with a high level of skill the sling that was attached to it being utilized to stabilize the rifle and we saw its effect two rounds right next to each other and Charles Jones back fired by this 18 year old at the time defendant right through the windshield and then the two well-placed parallel rounds right through the back window and then the brass catchers which unfortunately for these defendants had those two shell casings that matched the gun that fired the Glock that fired Mr. Chance's Glock that fired that Mr. Murphy Rashad Murphy utilized he provided the modification to that weapon and manipulated the weapon so that there wouldn't be shell casings left not this time because you remember back in October of 23 in the first attack on Charles Jones they were able to match shell casings from that scene to the shell casings found when these officers stopped Mr. Gathright those shell casings and of course Mr. Gathright provided ammunition as well as the rifles so I want to talk to you about this I don't have audio on this but I just want you to watch for a few minutes what is occurring in this screen recorded video on his iCloud look at that time 830 840 that's a work day before the murder happens that's eight hours before the murder happens and we know that this defendant look at the problem solving right there in real time in that evidence the decision making going on from as Raul Benasco told us a very mature defendant who can take care of himself look at him going through and then we're going to see him start using the multiple filters a property on the water a property with this many rooms a property that has a pool a property with a barbecue trying to figure this out this evidence in and of itself is overwhelming premeditation this just drips with premeditation it's saturated with it and it goes on you remember in the trial when we played this for you this goes on for minutes and minutes and minutes of tenacious goal oriented purpose driven behavior by this defendant and what was the whole purpose of this was he looking for an airbnb was he looking to rent a property was he doing anything of any kind of productivity no he's trying to find their praise trying to find Charles Jones their target desperately trying to find him actively trying to find him that phone is not moving itself that's his fingers doing that searching looking now the filtering when you're considering the weight of this aggravating factor and you're comparing it and weighing it against a significant mitigator that he was 18 this is what you need to look at when you're assessing the value and quality that this was a cold calculated and premeditated murder and remember your considerations are to each individual defendant as far as their sentence it's an individual sentence but because this is a conspiracy because they acted as a team a lot of this evidence you got to look at it as a whole you got to look at it as a whole every one of them this cold calculated premeditated aggravator applies to each of them this alone this is enough premeditation to convict a thousand people of first degree premeditated murder but it doesn't end there because at 1.30 this defendant is not done hunting and searching for Mr. Jones now he's going to utilize a technique a honeypot he's going to use a honeypot technique if you've ever heard of that term a honeypot a lure he's going to try to lure and get that information by luring it out of someone by using this pretty young girl Kyla who unbelievably goes along with this I need you to text fat boy we never know who fat boy is [00:49:58] Speaker ?: this [00:49:58] Speaker 2: is probably Xavier Edwards about what as I need you to text fat boy telling you trying to pull up about trying to see him tonight he know I'm gone I've been facetiming him while I'm out she doesn't really understand at first he in Tampa right now make it seem like you know he's there he had a B&B with six be like what's why WYA where you at I want to pull up I'm drunk and trying to F never mind then she says we at tier the club because she's not following you want to come to the B&B with us question mark because she's not understanding no I'm in Tampa I'm trying to see where his B&B at who B&B six fools it's his bidet in fat boy widow not here in Jacksonville no they in Tampa what she still doesn't understand but that doesn't stop him he persists let me FaceTime play like you know it face fat fat boy going to beezers tonight or some shit like that clearly this defendant was persistent that night and tenacious in his attempt to locate Charles Jones and then we know that in addition to all of this effort and involvement in this case because folks the evidence in this case shows there is no defendant sitting over here there is no defendant in this case who did more to orchestrate this murder than Mr. Gathright they may be as involved in him but nobody exceeds his culpability in this murder he adds and provides the car for the assault team the Impala he drives all the way down there and takes the entire intelligence and surveillance team with him we talked about this how he drove around the parking lot how he maneuvered how he maneuvered and kept the assault team from being detected that's on that defendant's shoulders in this cold calculated premeditated murder and where does this whole thing end back at the Gathright residence in the suburbs in Jacksonville now he's not there no this defendant's not there he's over in Auburndale in Polk County dropping the Impala off with his unsuspecting grandmother leaving it with his grandmother Miss Allen and then driving off in her forerunner now loaded with all of that ammunition and all that other evidence before I talk about this aggravating factor I want to talk about the cold calculated premeditated evidence in this case this evidence alone and this aggravating factor alone if we had no other aggravating factor would justify a sentence of death for each one of these defendants standing alone standing alone it would justify a sentence of death because this is a boatload a boatload of premeditation this is like I said it's enough premeditation to convict thousands of men there could have been 40 people participating that each had just a little chunk of this two weeks more than two weeks of premeditation and they all could have been convicted as principles to first degree murder it's overflowing and this evidence as you saw in that trial because we kept bringing it didn't we all the way up to the end all the way up to the end more and more and more evidence more and more evidence and football it's called piling on and when we have the burden of proof which we should have the burden of proof because we're the government and we are here asking you something then we need to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt but like I told you in my opening statements we're going to prove this to you beyond any doubt there's zero doubt in this case that they committed premeditated murder and I'm very confident that every one of you found that when you went back there to deliberate this aggravating factor it stands on a substantial volume of premeditation of evidence of premeditation of heightened premeditation this aggravating circumstance alone justifies a sentence of death this aggravating factor alone and its evil and its wicked nature outweighs any of the suggested mitigation for any of these defendants any of them they conspired they premeditated as a team and it applies to each one of them this aggravator that either Rashad Murphy or Sean Gathright or Davion Murphy was contemporaneously convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to another person you can take out the previously part that's another way of proving that they were convicted of a contemporaneous violent felony when you all came back here with that just verdict finding them these three defendants guilty each guilty each of three counts not one but three counts of attempted second degree murder and that's exactly what they did attempted second degree murder that is an aggravating factor that I've kind of broached and talked about a little bit already they weren't going to just kill Charles Jones he was the target no doubt about it but if there was someone else there six block they were going to kill him you saw that in the evidence so let's talk about each of the people who were affected in those counts victim Gino Norris 22 years old not a six block member but a lifetime friend or a lifelong friend of Charles Jones since they were in middle school he was there to celebrate with Charles this young man that you saw come in here this man who talked in low tones and a subdued voice and you saw in the evidence when they went up the stairs at truth 18 he kind of paused and leaned on the banister and waited for everyone else he was there because he was Charles Jones friend not because he was a member of six block but that didn't stop him from catching around in his arm Xavier Edwards the driver of the car who is a six block member 19 years old at the time he took multiple rounds into his shoulder he had grazing wounds on his hands probably because his hands were up where all of the glass was shattering on the steering wheel this young man most likely saved not only himself but Geno Norris his life by pressing down on that accelerator and driving through that massive wall of fire in that vortex between Davion Murphy and Sean Gathright's high powered rifle fire and then this photograph because I want to speak about this a little bit we're going to talk about this look at their faces look at that that is from a body worn camera that's not a pose that's in the middle of what's occurring that's a screenshot from a body worn camera look at the stunned look on Geno's face and look at the expression on Xavier Edwards we heard testimony this week about this was a traumatic event remember that coming out of Mr. Gathright's mouth that's trauma right there that evidence that's real trauma being reflected in real time as it's being suffered and we saw these photographs of Xavier Edwards being treated in the hospital for all of his wounds these men still having projectiles in their bodies that photographs should be on the horizontal but that's Geno Norris in the hospital he was able to go home later that day with his father who came and got him and this is what I was talking about earlier look at the placement of those rounds from Mr. Gathright's rifle because there's no doubt he's the one that fired those the one on the right went out the windshield the one on the left went through this young lady's right arm Kamea Bentley 22 years old completely unrelated to anyone in this case she's a friend of Miss Allbritton's and just happened to be tagging along for the party and somehow somehow by some providence she knew to slip into that front seat because I can tell you if you're looking at this photograph let me see if I can go backwards one of those rounds may very well have gone right through her head yeah we have three attempted murders in this case only by the grace of God and you can see the round coming out of that windshield and then this is before I guess I move on to that let me talk about this aggravator the fact that these three defendants Murphys and Mr. Gathright shot and killed Charles Jones and then attempted to murder these other people who were in the cars Camilla Geno and Xavier Edwards that is an aggravating factor that is a violent felony offense that you have convicted them of and that is an aggravating factor and there's absolutely zero doubt about it's been proven in your verdicts your verdicts you've already found that this aggravator exists beyond a reasonable doubt that aggravator alone would justify a sentence of death for these three defendants but when you couple it when you add it and it's weight and significance to the heightened premeditation in this case there's no comparison it blots out the mitigation that's been presented to you for those three defendants the first degree murder was committed by a criminal gang member now I think Mr. Petridis had come up here in his opening and had told you what you all already know you already basically have found that this is proven by the by proving on a reasonable doubt the wording that you were given and that's a sentencing enhancement is that the crimes were committed by a gang member or associate because both of those would qualify you remember the gang detectives talking about there's criteria numbers that have to be met in the Florida statutes for a gang member or for an associate the state has no doubt that when you deliberated you found that all of these defendants other than Mr. Gathright are gang members but now you will have to make a finding of that that the state has proven beyond any doubt that they are you will be given the same instructions about the criteria and that so many have to be met is that an aggravating factor in this case so I want to ask you about that does common sense say that it is because if these if one of these defendants who was a gang member let's just take Mr. Chance just as an example if he had got into a fight with his girlfriend or found out something about her that he was upset about and he went out to his car and retrieved a gun and he loaded it and he walked around the block and he cooled off and he came back and decided he was going to kill her anyways and he went and murdered her that would be premeditated murder and that would be an aggravating factor because he is a gang member but in that instance the gang membership would have nothing to do with that murder it would be unrelated to that murder and it would still be an aggravating factor but here this is the heart of this murder it's the heart of this plot this plan all four of these defendants share the same motive to take out Charles Jones because he is in the opposition Mr. Gathright we don't have this aggravator against him but he clearly has allegiances and associations so it goes to the CCP the cold calculated premeditated aggravator as far as Mr. Gathright his motive would be relevant to that to show the heightened premeditation but it is not an aggravator against him you cannot consider it as such but these other defendants yes it's not only an aggravating factor it's an essential part of the cold calculated premeditated manner that the murder was committed in because it's their motive it lays at the heart of this case and that's what makes it so aggravating when you couple that when you couple that that the reason they're doing this is because they are criminal gang members and they're taking out an opposition criminal gang member that's what aggravates this murder and it applies to these three defendants the murphys and now mr chance now mr chance not mr gathright and we know what their motive was we can take it right out of young and ace's song that was written and produced and upload it just a few days after charles jones murder davion murphy shug spaz davion murphy throwing gang signs talk about cold blooded they are talking to him about a murder and he's in there throwing gang signs when they leave him alone this is a proud gang member he is a walking billboard of 1200 it's indelibly imprinted all over his body from the 1200 on the back of his neck and his upper traps all over his body with the members of 1200 who have been murdered or killed rashad murphy sending out the next day was barely afternoon and he's posting his motive in this murder throwing props to prosper and junior [01:06:42] Speaker ?: and junior [01:06:42] Speaker 2: get back day they are the 187 babies and we all remember what 187 stands for right the California statute for murder you remember this slide and you see Mr. Murphy we saw still shots of Mr. Murphy there he's throwing an upside down six and a bully down sign and those videos that he was in with numerous other gang members including WAPA and Spenabins and then Mr. Chance up on the top left an ATK member Mr. Gathright's photo is in there only to show that he is associated to that gang and has allegiance to them again you cannot consider it as an aggravating factor with him Mr. Chance posts his motive right after the murder earlier than Rashad Murphy we see Tilly his good friend that was murdered just hours just hours before the attempted murder he was 18 years old at the time of the offense his age at the time of the offense it's kind of duplicating itself Mr. Gathright has a proposed 32 proposed listed mitigators again the state would just simply encourage you to follow the law that it's not a numbers game it's not a calculation he was raised in a military family with repeated parental deployments resulting in frequent locations and prolonged separations he was he was but look at what he was able to do with that you heard from his mother and you heard from his prior stepfather Mr. Harrington a wonderful man the Air Force man you heard from Mr. Edwards the counselor at the school that he got to go to the magnet school a school that not every kid gets to go to and they all told you he adjusted he was resilient he was able to go from one station to the next and treat it as a new enterprise remember what Mr. Harrington told us that he treated it as a new adventure a new culture with different people and to meet new people and he always his mother told us adjusted well to that he was primarily raised by his paternal grandmother due to parental absence and instability well when he when his parents were deployed serving our country abroad he did he lived with Miss Gathright his paternal grandmother again wonderful people she's right over there watching wonderful people her and her husband who's now gone wonderful people with a wonderful church community up in Oxford Mississippi who came around this young boy and this young man and nurtured him and gave him role models he always she told us had good male role models and what better male role model than Mr. Harrington what better role model than that did he have some exposure to some abuse or to some violence by his natural father yes he did but it was limited and that family made sure of that they made sure of that and he didn't just have Miss Gathright you flip over to the other side of the family Miss Allen another wonderful grandmother who told you about the Thanksgiving in New York and you heard all these little family anecdotes the things that make families families wonderful things he had a wonderful environment just like Mr. Chance but a little bit different with Mr. Gathright Mr. Gathright had more than just loving caring people Mr. Harrington tell you that's his son he considers his son Mr. Edwards going on trips with him and going on a cruise with him and counseling him and staying in contact with him once he got out of the school and went into high school and matriculated up he got to go to Europe Scotland Ireland he got to go to Spain and take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and he got to go to South Africa and did humanitarian work there he got to go to Cape Town one of the most beautiful cities in the world he lived in Okinawa Japan you heard Mr. Harrington say that who's a pilot and he got to fly to all these islands and the archipelago around Okinawa imagine imagine that childhood this man had all the opportunities all the care all the support and the love and the state would ask you to compare it to the despicable and evil actions of this 18 year old on June 22nd and the early morning hours of June 23rd is he hunted Charles Jones he was the driving force in this conspiracy no doubt about it just like Mr. Chance's surveillance it never could have happened without his participation he is up to his eyeballs in this conspiracy and murder he lacked a stable male role model or consistent guidance during formative years that has not been proven folks I'm sorry that has not been proven you can't march all of these wonderful people in here and believe that no way those grandmothers and his mother would never have allowed that to happen he was subjected to verbal abuse by his father it sounds like he was it sounds like that's been proven he was subjected to physical abuse and injury at the hands of his father maybe maybe we have that one story where he ran off and was in a park and his grandmother called him and they got him out of that situation fairly quickly and moved him back here to the east coast he lived in an environment marked by fear conflict and lack of safety in his father's home maybe but not for very long that was intermittent and it wasn't for more than a few weeks or a month we heard in the evidence he struggled with identity formation and belonging in adolescence I'm not sure we heard anything about that you may have a better memory than I do you rely upon the evidence he experienced isolation and a difficulty adjusting socially after relocation in adolescence I would suggest the evidence is to the exact contrary of that to the exact contrary of that he was susceptible to influence due to his age did the evidence reveal that that defendant was susceptible to influence or that he was the influencer look in the evidence as far as that mitigation because I don't believe the state would submit to you that has not been proven his decision making was influenced by peer groups and an unfamiliar culture he had been here in Jacksonville for several years they I believe maybe in his testimony tried to paint it as a violent environment that he was dropped into look at the evidence look at where he lived look at the photographs from the search warrants and the photographs of the exterior of that house and that driveway he lived in the suburbs in a nice area and you heard in the evidence that he lived in a nice area he is described as a kind respectful and nonviolent by his family I think they did describe him as such but the nonviolent and respectful superlatives simply did not apply from June 6 moving forward folks through this murder and even afterwards I'm not sure I would suggest to you the state would suggest how respectful it is to drop a motor vehicle that's been utilized in a collaborated conspiratorial murder with your elderly grandmother who ends up getting pulled over driving it he is optimistic and positive and a positive support for his family and friends I think that's probably been proven he loves his sister nephew's mother I think that's been proven he loved deeply by his family who have supported him that's been proven as I've already argued to you he's described as calm well-mannered and non-confrontational well he was certainly calm when he was loading that Impala and he was calm when he was executing this murder along with his co-conspirators calm to the point of ice water in his veins with that type of accuracy he was displaying with that rifle while moving trying to remember where I left off he has the capacity to contribute positively maybe is a son brother grandson and friend whose life has meaning to others absolutely absolutely that's been proven to you and again you need to assign to that whatever weight you see fit he has a desired potential to mentor to influence others it sounds like he does he has previously fed the homeless was involved in community projects in Mississippi when he lived with Miss Gathright I think that's been proven he's traveled to foreign countries on mission trips for humanitarian purposes that's been proven he participated in educational international travel programs with exposure to broader opportunities absolutely absolutely the environment that Mr. Gathright and Mr. Chance grew up in very very similar wonderful grandparents a wonderful and committed mother wonderful support systems from Mr. Nix for Mr. Chance to Mr. Harrington for Mr. Gathright but what separates these two these two defendants is the opportunities and possibly the material well-being of the family that Mr. Gathright grew up in he lived in Japan he visited Europe he had every single opportunity went to a magnet school traveled abroad he has [01:17:51] Speaker ?: he has [01:17:51] Speaker 2: entrepreneurial initiatives including running small businesses sure yeah that's probably it's definitely proven if you want to find that mitigating that's fine he showed productivity at a young age demonstrated desire to be productive engaged in creative constructive outlets including photography and media work at one point in his life yes he did clearly he has shown resilience adaptability despite adversity and see you see one mitigator here kind of contradicting another and that's what we heard in the evidence how resilient and adaptable that this defendant was when he was growing up out of necessity he had to learn to be he could contribute significantly to the prison workforce I'm sure he could I believe that up to you to decide if that has any mitigating weight at all and the existence of any other factors in Mr. Gathright's character so speaking of the prison then I want to talk about Raul Benasco's testimony because the man who's going to be paid four or five thousand dollars to come in here and give us this amazing news that prison is tough oh yeah prison is tough life is life life without parole that's a tough sentence is it punishment because you've heard that kind of all through the beginning of this penalty phase life without parole is punishment yeah it's punishment it certainly is punishment and a death sentence is punishment you need to decide what the appropriate sentence is it's not an issue as to whether it's punishment it clearly is punishment it clearly is and as if he's sentenced to this on this crime Mr. Gathright to life in prison he will be at a higher at close custody level there is some modification Mr. Banasco told this could occur to his work and to his living environments but it's not maximum security death row it's a different whole ball of wax you remember the whole air conditioning argument I think everyone here knows what air conditioning is and it doesn't exist on death row the mitigating circumstances applicable to Rashad Murphy there's 12 of them he has no significant history of prior criminal activity that's been proven that's fine mitigating yeah his age at the time of the offense well he was 30 years old folks he was a grown man I mean 30 years old that that's not an issue as to whether that's mitigating that has zero mitigating weight the state would suggest to you that is not a mitigating factor he has a history of physical emotional abuse as a child consistent with PTSD alright so that's probably the most significant thing that Mr. Murphy has is mitigation that he actually went into foster care for a couple of years I think it was three years but there was a real divergence while he was in there remember he was placed with some foster family because his mother was a drug addict and apparently the authorities removed him up in Georgia in St. Mary's Georgia and he went into a foster situation that was not very good and he saw his little brother being physically abused and I'm sure that and I have no doubt the state has no quarrels or qualms with that being traumatic that's traumatic as a boy to see that a stranger beating on your little brother but we also heard that the whole time that was occurring his aunt and his grandmother was fighting to get him out of there they were fighting to get Mr. Murphy out of that circumstance he and his brother and the Georgia authorities were skeptical about it because of what had occurred with the mother and I think maybe his grandfather had some criminal history way back in early part of his life and it was affecting that decision meanwhile he ends up he and his brother do with this woman Miss Dallas who his aunt told us was a wonderful foster mother he couldn't have had a better foster mother Miss Dallas she cared for those boys and when the state came to take them when her time with them was up she fought to keep them from being transferred to another foster parent or another foster home she loved and cared and supported those boys and his aunt came in here and told us and we may have heard that from someone else I don't remember but another family member may have told us about Miss Dallas you remember the testimony she would dress them up and bring them down here when their little sister was performing at church in Jacksonville drive all the way down from Georgia she would bring them down there down there to Jacksonville for family get-togethers and they thought the world of her but after about two to three years Mr. Murphy went back to his family went back to that environment that he lived in which was a loving caring environment outside of his mother outside of his mother it was a loving and caring environment that he had his aunts told you that in their testimony he had and maintained a loving relationship with his family and friends while he was incarcerated he absolutely did he has developed religious and spiritual awareness well apparently he has we saw some certificates where he's been doing that and trying to help out with bible study he loves his children has been a good father to them it sounds like he has sounds like Ms. Steiger told us that and I know his aunts told us that he loved his children or does love his children and again another aggravator a numbered one it talks about him being removed from his home placed into foster care the state would tell you that that most likely that's the most powerful mitigation he probably has he has no prior felony convictions that's true we stipulated to that he has displayed appropriate behavior and the ability to follow rules while incarcerated that's fine if you want to find that to be mitigating he's in a controlled environment and then any other existence of any other factors the PTSD diagnosis the state would suggest to you is somewhat of a skeptical the state is skeptical of that diagnosis and the evidence in this case Dr. Collins testified to it and agreed he in fact was looking for the collateral evidence that Dr. Werner examined in this case the police reports the interviews and Dr. and that was her discussion about other defendants not about Mr. Murphy's case Rashad Murphy he found evidence that he may suffer from PTSD but as I pointed out to her in the cross examination this defendant not only participated in this conspiracy to commit murder and took all those steps I already walked through with you all the things that he did to contribute to this including trying to protect the conspiracy and trying to keep it hidden which apparently is his forte the ghost who didn't appear until they got back to Jacksonville was able to avoid the cameras but his role and the next aggravator I'm going to talk to you about not only in the heightened premeditation which clearly he was part of that planning because he's telling them we have this plan in place that we're going to do and he needs to stop talking before they figure this out trying to protect it his behavior in the actual murder itself with that fully automatic Glock pistol that needs to be considered because he's firing that at a fully automatic cyclical rate with Mr. Gathright standing to his right firing a high powered rifle at a high rapid fire rate all of that percussion all of those muzzle flashes all of that violence occurring not affecting him at all not triggering any kind of a PTSD reaction at all he coolly calmly runs back to the Impala almost like he's jogging keeping his head turned towards the charger as it flees gets back into the Impala and they flee back to the Airbnb and then he's posting up get back day and lastly Davion Murphy may I have one moment to consult your honor yes so Mr. Davion Murphy has suggested 13 mitigating circumstances I'll try to move through these as fast as possible the capacity of Davion Murphy to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired absolutely not that has been absolutely disproven everything about this case tells you that he knew the criminality he wouldn't be hiding his identity if he didn't know the criminality of his conduct everything about this shows planning it shows advanced thought purposeful action him pursuing the charger remember and firing the rounds down the west side of the hotel at the charger nothing about this supports that and Dr. Werner confirmed it in her expert psychiatric opinion he does not meet that the felony was committed while he was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance no no that was completely disproven Dr. Werner told you no he doesn't suffer from any emotional disturbance or extreme mental disturbance his age at the time of the offense he was in his mid to late 20s I think he was 26 he was late to mid 20s he suffers from traumatic brain injury I'm just going to echo the words of the last doctor you just heard testify a Yale educated board certified diagnostic radiologist who's been looking at MRIs for his entire career for decades absolutely not no there's no brain damage in Mr. Davion Murphy's brain he was exposed to repeated violence in his childhood and young adult life there's no evidence of that folks for Davion Murphy none his mother misspeaks a wonderful mother a wonderful mother described as a wonderful mother when asked by Dr. Werner the state's own expert last Saturday tell me about your childhood I had a great childhood I had a good mother and we saw that in the record evidence that Dr. Eisenstein testified about that was provided to him by Miss Toomey by Davion Murphy's attorneys and we saw it in the records the things she did for her son the things she tried to do moving him to a different getting him out of the eighth grade because he was having all of this conduct issues which was the support for Dr. Werner's conduct disorder diagnosis the precursor to antisocial personality disorder get him out of the public schools put him into that Christian academy and sure enough what happens he graduates from eighth grade it helps him later he fails 11th grade and he ends up in the Jacksonville youth academy where he has to go to school and he finishes 11th grade and then what happens his mother who kicked him out of the house because she had exercised some tough love which takes a lot of love a lot of love for any parent knows that it takes a lot of love to kick your son out or kick your daughter out when they're doing something like that and not being accountable he was skipping smoking gambling getting into all kinds of trouble at school she kicked him out of the house and he went to live with one of his grandmothers but in 12th grade after he graduates or gets through 11th grade she goes and petitions the high school there in Jacksonville and gets him back into school and he finishes his 12th grade year he doesn't graduate with his class he later gets his special diploma for high school there was no violence in his childhood this is a young man who learned how to work he learned how to work a nine to five job and we saw that in the evidence all the jobs he held for months and months and months in fact he taught his younger brother who was transported down here from prison to testify for his older brother and told you he taught me how to work a nine to five job he taught me how to be responsible and what else did that young man tell you about his older brother that Davion at eighth grade 13 14 years old when his mother had to be hospitalized when Ms. Beaks had to go in the hospital this defendant takes over he takes over the household he takes over the chores and making sure the other siblings do the chores and keep the house up to the standards that are Ms. Beaks standards he cooks for his siblings this defendant just like the other defendants had a loving environment around him with caring mothers caring people other than Rashad Murphy's mother I wouldn't put her into that class apparently he's not in the borderline range of intellectual disabilities in the low average range but not in a range that disables him or keeps him from being able to work or keeps him from being able to recognize the fact that he needs to avoid the ring camera at the Airbnb the day before or keeps him from understanding that when they're committing this murder in order to keep the victim from knowing they're there and taking off and fleeing that he needs to conceal himself and hide behind the cars and take up a position because you remember he was the backup singer in this performance he was the backup shooter to prevent flight as a hedge against the victim escaping and he sure fulfilled that didn't he he came out of the shadows with those giant fireballs coming out of that 300 blackout and it didn't prevent him from understanding that he needed to hide his identity he needed to wear dark clothes to stay camouflaged in the darkness of that night and he needed to hide his identity with a ski mask you didn't really probably need Dr. Warner to tell you all of that Davion Murphy grew up in a household marked by instability and financial strain I don't know about the instability there probably was financial strain I think that the young man yesterday from the prison told us when he was being questioned you know it's not like we were living in some mansion or something so yeah it was a caring loving environment but we didn't have a lot of money he didn't have a stable male role model in his life maybe his father was diagnosed with schizophrenia well his father really wasn't in his life his father was in prison for a lot of his life you heard his uncle who came in and testified about Davion's upbringing his father was incarcerated for life when he was 12 years old yeah is that mitigating probably yeah I'm sure that had some effect on him when he was a boy to lose his father like that to prison he took on a parental role we just talked about that that basically contradicts the mitigator that he has borderline range of intelligence he's loved by his family no doubt about that no doubt about that and the existence of any other factors I want to go back real quick before I leave Rashad Murphy because folks unlike the guilt phase of this trial I'm not going to have a rebuttal argument I'm not going to get up here again the way this works since we are seeking to have you sentence these defendants to death and their lives are on the line or at play their attorneys and the state doesn't quarrel with this at all they don't quarrel with this they get the last word they get the last word but I want to talk about Rashad Murphy one more time there was something I didn't speak about earlier that was significant in that mitigation his aunt told us that the grandmother and the aunts wanted to help him to pursue his passion that Rashad Murphy was a successful football player he excelled and they let him go to live with a relative in New Jersey to play on this team up there this high school team to give him that opportunity to go up there she said there was a video and I think you all probably know what they're talking about they make videos of highlights to try to get kids into college on scholarships that's what these people did for that young man that's how loving and caring they were I just wanted to mention that before I forgot about it when you're considering the weight of these mitigating factors please consider what's also been proven alone in the mitigating factors that all of these defendants had people in their lives that loved them cared about them that were role models for them they never went without that none of them did both the Murphys Mr. Gathright Mr. Chance Mr. Gathright and Mr. Chance both of them had every opportunity to grow up to be productive men and citizens so I want to talk to you about weighing aggravating circumstances versus mitigation well let me I'll come back to that in a minute because I want to talk about this aggravator and I've been up here for quite a while these three defendants the three shooters knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons and I want to go through this with you one more time and I'll try to be quick look at where Mr. Rashad Murphy is firing that fully automatic Glock pistol he's not just firing it in the direction of that charger right behind it lays Armani Turner's Hyundai with Miss Randolph in it and Mr. Howard in the back seat he knows that his rounds may go anywhere over there he's creating and knowingly creating a great risk of death to many people he knows that there's people in that other car the Altima that doesn't stop him from firing and when they came into this parking lot and drove all the way around that whole complex every one of those defendants that were involved in the shooting the Murphys and Mr. Gathright saw all of the cars parked in the parking spots and we know from the evidence that hotel was full of people and all of them knew it and Mr. Murphy look at the indiscriminate firing into multiple cars with all these party goers has that been proven beyond a reasonable doubt absolutely it has as it pertains to Mr. Murphy and that fully automatic pistol that he's shooting 31 rounds out of you see the impacts here to this car it's the states assertion to you that is now Mr. Gathright's rifle fire coming in and we know the two rounds coming out of Mr. Jones bodies come from that rifle that Mr. Gathright has fired and again I pointed out to you earlier watch the rear window of the Altima lights come on Kimia Bentley trying to get out of there you heard her in her testimony as soon as a car moves first impact second impact two impacts that is Mr. Gathright Sean Gathright he fired that AR-15 into that Dodge Charger and then he redirects directly into that Altima and as far as he knows from his position at Truth 18 there are many people at least three in that car Tafa McRae and Miss Allbritton and Miss Kamiya Bentley and that didn't stop him from firing into that car into both of these cars he knows Geno Norris or Xavier Edwards is in that Charger we're talking about multiple people being fired upon here a knowing commission of great risk to many people of death absolutely it's been proven in this evidence and if you look at the next video we'll move to it real quick first of all I guess we can look at these people that were being affected by all of this Miss Turner Miss Randolph Mr. Howard in the backseat Tafa and Aaliyah are now in the lobby using the restroom but these three don't know that because they've been around the corner hiding and they left to go into the lobby when they went in there it wasn't at a time that the cruise was driving by with Mr. Chance to be able to tell them that so as far as they knew these cars had all of these people in them then the other video of the shooting Mr. Gathright is now firing into the charger watch his muzzle of that rifle right there he turns and redirects his fire into the Altima no hesitation none he knows he's firing into cars that hold multiple people and there's absolutely zero hesitation on his part no cause for concern continues to fire until now the charger starts to move you see its headlights in the lower left corner he's still firing into other into that car and now comes the charger so he redirects fire into them now beyond these cars is 40th street mckinley 40th street mckinley a busy road and he's firing towards that road indiscriminate with impunity doesn't really care about anyone it could potentially be driving over there continues to fire and then is firing there at the car as it's going north his fire is going north northwest east if you remember the evidence and you can see down you can see where the home de suites is I'm sure you all are familiar with this you looked at it for weeks but you remember if you look at the direction just to the left on the bottom of the portico you can see the tree at the end of that little island you can see the handicapped spot where the Lexus was parked at the time Mr. Gathright is directing his fire at that charger as it's passing him and he's firing now to the north northwest right in the direction of that Laquita Inn where Pedro Gabor was staying with his wife and his 10 year old son and his six year old daughter here from Ocala to go to the Lowry Park Zoo and Mr. Gathright he doesn't care he's not stopping there's no cause for concern he's opening up with a 5.56 nanocaliber high powered rifle and he's firing it directly into the path of that Holiday Inn and that Laquita Inn and we know that was a high powered round that went through that air conditioning unit through that brick wall course across that room and struck Pedro Gabor's wife in the ankle and it was stinging her she didn't know what it was and then it was this little boy the next morning that found it the one piece of projectile later a uniformed officer went in there and recovered more from that round that didn't [01:44:21] Speaker ?: that didn't [01:44:21] Speaker 2: stop Mr. Gathright was firing indiscriminately right towards all of this densely packed humanity having driven around that parking lot and seen all those cars knowing that this is a hotel complex you saw the big signs outside there's no mistaking where they were and that's in addition to all the rounds that he and Rashad Murphy pumped into those cars towards these party goers and friends and now we get to Mr. Davion Murphy who incidentally is not going to be reflected on this but when he comes out of the shadows by that yellow Bronco on one side and the Mercedes SUV on the other he's firing into the Dodge Charger but he's also firing directly in towards the hotel Sean Gathright was directing fire into that hotel and we saw that there were windows shattered in the front of the hotel at the entrance of the hotel could have been anybody in that hotel behind those windows and that's just in the front of the hotel look what he's doing here look what he's doing there he is firing he's firing directly up to the left in that image of that hotel straight up there pushing those rounds rapidly with that firearm that he has no stock on it right and he's firing it directly to the north northeast up that corridor where the charger is fleeing he didn't care he didn't stop him to think that there are hotel rooms lining that west side of the hotel and we heard Audra Agremonti tell us remember her the woman who came here from Palm Beach County with her husband and her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend they had put the daughter into or checked her into her dorm for summer session at USF at the University of South Florida and her and her husband and the daughter's boyfriend are in the room and they hear all the shooting and then around flies through the window and cuts across the room the boyfriend grabbing her and pulling her to the ground that defendant didn't it didn't stop him at all the fact that this was a packed hotel he's firing indiscriminately down the edge of that hotel [01:46:56] Speaker 3: I just [01:47:06] Speaker 2: want to point out one thing and it really shouldn't be any of your all's concern at this point you heard a question asked of Dr. Eisenberg whether Davion Murphy is right or left handed and they say he's left handed that had nothing to do with Dr. Eisenstein's opinions in this case zero to do with it alright so one thing you can be assured of in this case is that your guilty verdict rests on mountains of evidence there should be no doubt in your mind that's already been proven that's already been proven but it's clear in that video that Mr. Murphy is holding the gun with his right hand not his left hand and there's a reason for that because if he used his left hand there's nowhere to put his right hand because of the brass catcher he'd be right up on the muzzle if he did that there's a reason he's using his right hand it's out of necessity and of course we know Mr. Murphy he's not embarrassed he's not shy and obviously zero remorse over what he did his role in this case because he's reenacting it in the interview room mocking the police with what he did that aggravating factor alone that aggravating factor alone placing many people at great risk and knowingly placing many people at great risk of death think about that think about how heinous that is how heinous that is that you're going to treat all the people in that hotel all the party goers is just fodder they're just fodder for these killers because they're going to kill Charles Jones no matter what and that's why they brought that overwhelming amount of firepower and they were going to lay down a barrage a wall of lead and anyone that got in the way it didn't matter to them it didn't make them hesitate they had zero reservations in the evidence about that and that is an aggravating factor that is an aggravating factor when you couple that for these three defendants the murphys and mr gathright with the other aggravating factors in this case the cold calculated premeditated fashion this murder was committed in there is absolutely no contest between the state's aggravating factors and this mitigating factors that have been presented to you none the law on weighing aggravators versus mitigation first you decide what value what's what significance in light of this case and how it applies to the sentence what significance does that mitigation have the aggravation all of it is powerful in its significance the state would suggest to you that every aggravating factor is a powerful factor as it relates specifically to this case and these defendants individual actions you have to do the same with the mitigation you have to go through and determine number one has it been proven number two what weight does that have to me and my decision making in this case does it have significant weight does it have great weight and then ultimately it's up to you to decide and it's not a numbers game it's not a numbers game it's a quality game it's the quality of the aggravation now you have to decide does the state's aggravation outweigh their mitigation because if it doesn't then your job is done your personal decision is done you check off life that's your vote if it does outweigh the mitigation then you can sentence them to death you remember that all the way back the jury selection and it's the state suggestion to you each of you individually that the aggravating factors in this case prove to you they should prove to each and every one of you that the just verdict and just sentence in this case is one of death for each of them I want to go back to the cold part of the cold calculated premeditated we talked a lot about the premeditation we talked a lot about all the individual steps I've discussed with you all of the problem solving that went on but I want you to consider how cold blooded a conspiracy that lasts for weeks is how cold blooded that is look at the accuracy and the efficiency with which Sean Gathright operated in this murder with which Davion Murphy operated no hesitation at all in anything that Mr. Davion Murphy did from the time he came out of that car all masked up had his mask on had his disguise on keeping himself hidden away in the shadows until the appropriate time when he came out and started unleashing those fireballs of gunfire and then to turn and pursue that tenaciousness and that purposefulness and then to immediately turn after firing and go back immediately to flee and to get away all of this with all of those defendants Rashad Murphy too it doesn't just suggest that they all had ice water in their veins it suggests that they all were acting with cold blooded lack of any kind of emotion this was just simple business from loading that Impala to the way and the manner in which this murder happened it was all business they acted as a team as a team effort you know this kind of premeditation that you see in this case this is a kind of teamwork and premeditation that puts rockets in space folks that's what this is and the kind of problem solving but when you want to talk about coldness and cold blooding we already saw the social media posts from Mr. Chance and Mr. Murphy don't forget about this this was right around noon Mr. Chance comes out of that front door he's got a celebratory drink in his hand he walks out the moving truck is unrelated that's dealing with the next door neighbors but he comes out with that drink in his hand and then he's posting this he's putting up posts of him standing with his drink look at the time stamps look at that that's like around 11 o'clock 331 UTS minus four hours 1130 what is that 16 or 1856 so right around 2 o'clock UTC right before they left he's drinking he's celebrating and putting up posts online and then we go back finally just to touch upon this one more time to the conversation the conspiratorial conversation that's occurring weeks before this between Rashad Murphy and Sean Gathright the 18 year old we got to stop chance from giving us away from revealing what we're doing get on there and stop him and they agree to do that we talked about we talked about the business like attitude of Mr. Gathright and Mr. Chance we've looked at that video so I'm not going to go through it again folks back in my opening statement I told you that during this trial and the guilt phase that we were going to reach out into the darkness of the early mornings of June 23rd 2024 we were going to drag drag that conspiracy in here and reveal it under the lights of this courtroom the bright lights of truth and that's exactly what we did in this case that's what the evidence in this case did it showed and revealed the underbelly of this evil wicked pernicious plan but it was more than that you know I talked to you earlier about piling on in our evidence there must have come a time there must have come a time in the last week of the state's case where you all must have been thinking man when is this going to end we've heard enough this is well beyond a reasonable doubt when is it going to end when is this evidence going to end it just keeps coming and I wouldn't blame you for having that thought because it did because along with us dragging that conspiracy in it was like a dump truck coming in here and earth movers just pushing in this mountain of premeditation you know and it really when it the way it ended up being here when we were in guilt phase closing statements was like we were all floating around in this ocean literally an ocean of premeditation literally that's how much evidence there is in this case and just like those fireballs coming out of that 300 blackout in that early morning right there by the portico of the home to suites from Davion Murphy's gun that were so bright even in that ambient lighting of that parking lot just like that this evidence shines brightly it can't be avoided it can't be hidden from no hoodie no COVID masks are going to hide the defendants from this aggravation there are no Ubers here to whisk anyone away from your sentence in this case there is a mountain a mountain of evidence proving these aggravating factors I point that out to you because it gives each of you this benefit when you go back there and you're deliberating and you're voting on what the appropriate sentence is for each one of these defendants it gives you the assurance it gives each of you the knowledge deep down deep down that your sentence is based upon not just a rock like it says in the scriptures not just a rock it's based and it sits on this giant enormous mountain of evidence of premeditation evidence of creating great risk to many people and the gang membership that lies at the heart of this case all of these aggravators there are mountains and heaps of evidence that prove it none of you none of you should walk out of here after you enter your sentences and your votes none of you should have any qualms or doubts [01:59:08] Speaker ?: or doubts [01:59:08] Speaker 2: about doing so because you can go home and you'll know that night in your heart that your vote to sentence these defendants to death your vote stands on that evidence and that assurance and you can have that assurance that night you can be assured of the correctness and the justness of that sentence of death the next day through the weekend into next week into next month for the rest of your lives you can know that your sentences in this case are just and right sentences I quoted earlier from the book of the Killa Mockingbird from Atticus Finch describing in his closing statements that the courts are the great leveler the courts are the great leveler I want to quote another writer a writer from the 19th century from the 1800s Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote those wonderful books Treasure Island I don't want to mistake the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde stories that we've all heard in our lives he was a great writer he was a poet he was a national hero in Scotland and is still revered there today but he's also known for this quote eventually everybody everybody sits down to a banquet a banquet of consequences and today each of these defendants all of them sitting over here are sitting in this courtroom for their banquet the state of Florida stands before you and requests that each and every one of you go back there and vote to sentence each of these defendants to death for the murder of Charles Jones for the murder of this man that you sentence each of them to death knowing that it is the just and it is the right sentence in this case the jury is in general [02:01:49] Speaker 1: okay very good welcome back members of the jury we are ready to proceed and Ms. Finkelstein on behalf of Sean Gatherett you may proceed [02:01:59] Speaker 4: members of the jury we have come a long way since you were selected a little bit over three weeks ago and now we have reached the most demanding part of this trial in just a little while the faith of Sean Gathright is going to be out of our hands and into yours if you remember back to jury selection there was a lot of numbers scales questions posed to you over and over and I told you at that time I wasn't going to hold you to those numbers some of us said we didn't really like the numbers it was just kind of getting a feel for where you guys stand coming into a new scenario and the reason I said that was because this isn't a test this isn't a numbers game not a math problem or an equation this is most literally a life or death scenario soon you will have to decide whether a young 20 year old man will spend the rest of his life in prison or whether he will be executed sean gathright is not wicked sean gathright is not evil no matter how many times no matter how many ways it could be said in the states closing he's not a mastermind he's not a super coordinator or orchestrator apparently he might even be a rocket scientist the state can minimize or diminish the mitigation list that's in front of you the state may think that something deserves weight or no weight that doesn't matter that decision lies with each and every one of you the state's opinion or theory is just that this part of the trial as i told you in opening is about the defendants about sean gathright and it's about each one of you on several occasions i heard mr harman when he was reading some of the mitigating factors that are on there say you can find that mitigating that's fine but lucky for you you don't need permission you can evaluate that mitigation exactly how you feel fit each and every one of them this is your decision a personal decision and you never under any circumstance have to vote for death in the state's close mr harman presented a very strong case for why you should find mr gathright guilty you've already done that that part's over went pretty hard on mr gathright and painted him out as a person who led this whole thing we wouldn't be here without him that's his theory and my theory is that's done to lessen the mitigation that was done to convince you that what you saw and what you heard from this witness stand this last week from mr gathright's mouth himself shouldn't be given the significant weight that it deserves but what it actually did was prove that a kid with no motive no involvement no history in that can get wrapped up in a culture that he has no business in the evidence was overwhelming that mr gathright's life had has and always will have value mr gathright is a human being worth saving even in prison people may think well you're in there for life or death does it matter you're in there yes because you heard from mr bonosco all the different ways that you can be useful not only to the state from a financial perspective if that matters but to other people in prison out of prison his family that supports him no matter what sits in here and listens every day you heard what a positive optimistic person he is from friends family guidance counselors he can be a light in a dark place hopefully he can keep making people smile even now from jail you heard that he's still asking about other people when he talks to them trying to keep them in good spirits while he's sitting in jail while he is facing a death sentence he's worried about other people that's not wicked that's not evil the theme from those witnesses on Mr. Gathright's behalf he was positive he was funny he was witty he made people feel good you heard that he was kind and respectful and well mannered and you don't just have to take the word of family and friends that know him and of course want to come in and they want to save him they want to help him you saw it from Mr. Gathright that young man had the courage to get up there and face you and talk to you and try the best he could to explain his remorse his accountability responsibility and his worth and when he was questioned on cross examination and tried to get riled up he remained respectful that's his character that wasn't a show he was authentic he was real he was honest he didn't get riled up he answered every question politely with sir at the end from someone who was cross examining him pretty harshly and he was seeking to have you vote to take his life away he remained respectful because that's who he is inside that doesn't change now is that the reason that you should not give somebody a death penalty well that's up to you and that's why it's your choice but what it is along with the other testimony you heard is that proof that good kids good people privileged kids I guess we want to call them educated intelligent worldly that those types of kids Sean Gathright was not isolated or insulated or immune from getting wrapped up in something that he had no business in he's an 18 year old kid who is not immune from outside influence curiosity he told you himself yes I had a privileged life I had people that loved me I got to travel I saw things I did things I had opportunity and [02:10:35] Speaker ?: and [02:10:35] Speaker 4: I still after leaving that bubble saw parts of Jacksonville parts of a culture that I didn't know were out there and look where he finds himself that curiosity from that 18 year old kid brought him right here you know the state said oh Mr. Banasco who testified that the prison expert said Mr. Gathright was mature I think everybody did I think you can see it for yourself he's mature he appeared mature for his age well Mr. Banasco is basing that on a conversation at the jail for I think it was a little over an hour but either way because he worked traveled helped support himself cared for others went to school presented himself as grown can take care of himself that might be mature for an 18 year old but he's still 18 maturity on the outside is not the same thing as being a developed adult and having life experiences having knowledge having street smarts it's not the same thing you can be well spoken and smart immature and still make really bad decisions he is impressionable he's naive he was curious he told you he was easily influenced that matters he told you himself that he was more vulnerable to influence and more likely to follow others probably based on his lack of seeing other aspects of the culture other aspects of Jacksonville and we heard that it's pretty rough there because he was 18 he was less capable of stopping and saying wait maybe this isn't taking me where I need to go and seeing the end result he doesn't have that experience or that knowledge he told you that while he had male influences and guidance in his life at the times that he felt it really mattered when Brian Harrington his stepfather who was a great guy divorced his mother 2020 Sean Gaffert was only 15 so from 15 till he lands in jail at 18 he didn't have a steady constant influence in his life when he needed it the most he is not saying he didn't have anybody he is not saying all the people that come here to support him and love him weren't really there they were but he's a kid he's feeling his way through things and it wasn't constant and it wasn't there for him at those years and that fact doesn't excuse any conduct it doesn't remove accountability but it explains how a young person with so much promise can make a catastrophic decision that could define the rest of his life that one decision and I told you in opening that mitigation isn't an excuse I'm not up here to make excuses for Sean Gath right and he wasn't making excuses for himself he wasn't blaming anybody it's an explanation and it's a reason and that's what mitigation is all about it helps to understand what I'm sure everyone is wondering is how he got here it's his story he took accountability he showed remorse remorse is defined as deep and painful and often long lasting feelings of guilt sadness or regret for past wrongdoing not at the moment most people don't feel remorse while they're doing something wrong they feel it afterwards and that's what you saw that wasn't contrived that wasn't fake that wasn't for your benefit it took a lot for him to get up there and he wanted to accountability is obligation or the willingness which you saw to accept responsibility and account for one's actions and that's exactly what he did he was straightforward he was composed he was wholly authentic and he told you you know what led him there what his curiosity did to him and you had heard from Maurice Edwards the state tried to say oh you know he never one of the mitigators was about you know him his instability or not being able to adapt and Maurice Edwards did tell you that that at a younger age being that he had some experiences and that Sean traveled and was not as steady in a place he had a biracial family that he did feel some sense of instability where do I belong where do I fit in and of course you're going to you're traveling all over yes you're seeing great things but he's still a kid and he admits Mr. Gathright told you step foot in the jail and immediately thought where did my path veer and instead of feeling sorry for himself getting down on himself for this situation that he and nobody else that you heard from it's all coming he cracked his bible he told you he talked to God and he's trying to make the best of a situation that he finds himself in he said something that I felt was pretty profound that he said you know people are always asking God for something praying to God to give them something or do something for them and he thought I can ask God what he wants from me so even in this situation he can be a light he can help people he can try and turn lives around for kids that he comes into contact with or adults in a dark dark place he sees hope he sees a future and I'm up here asking you to see that future for him see the hope in him see the redemption in him a lot of the questions of our mitigation witnesses and then some of the state's closing was thinking oh he's a privileged kid he had it all does that mean he's not worth saving I would submit to you that it's the absolute opposite there's a long list of mitigating factors that you'll have in your instructions and the state went over a lot of them I think there's 32 for Mr. Gathright I'm not going to read them all to you right now but you'll have them when you deliberate and it's a long list for a reason it's a long list because in his short 20 years 18 when this happened he really made an impression on this world so it's a long list imagine what he could have done if he had more than 18 years and remember that's just a list that we're providing you mitigation can be absolutely anything that you want anything you heard in the first phase anything you heard in this phase or just because you don't think that this young man deserves to die the law says that you can find those aggravators that the state proved to you in the first phase reminded you of yesterday you can find that those were proven you can find that they outweigh the mitigators and you never have to sentence someone to death the death penalty in this phase is not whether to punish but how it's not about whether Mr. Gathright will die in prison but about when and by what means natural causes or at the hands of the government the death penalty is not appropriate in this case Mr. Gathright does not deserve the death penalty this is the only time you have to make this decision you can't change it tomorrow you can't change it next week this is it a vote for life does not excuse any criminal behavior it's not an excuse it doesn't excuse responsibility for a crime a vote for life doesn't diminish the life of Charles Jones or the loss to his family or his loved ones a vote for life in this case is the just decision it's the right decision for Mr. Gathright do not define Sean Gathright by the worst decision the worst moment of his life Sean Gathright is a son who's worth saving he's a friend worth saving he's a nephew worth saving he's a grandson that's worth saving he's a baby brother worth saving he's an uncle worth saving I'm asking you to do just that thank you [02:21:18] Speaker 1: I want to [02:21:32] Speaker 5: thank you again you're going to get a lot of thank you today and they are well deserved we are at the end of your service but as I said in my opening we are also probably at the most difficult part of your service and we all understand that I want to start by saying justice will be served Isaiah Chance will spend the rest of his life in prison punished away from society all we are asking is that you spare his life death is never required the death penalty exists for the worst of the worst we submit that Isaiah Chance is not that as I said he will pay for this crime every day for the rest of his life we are asking you to let him have that life this is going to be a conversation about life a request on behalf of a young man and his family as a chance someone from Jacksonville lived with his mother who sat in his grandmother's lap called his father all the time went to Atlanta to be with his grandparents man with three children that's who you are deciding about today man who spent every day of his life working harder than those around him just trying to keep up and working harder to make it seem like he wasn't doing that you heard from six people and a doctor six people who love him and a doctor from that chair and they told you who he is they're asking for you to believe them and to listen to them the law gives you this phase of the trial for a reason you have decided guilt we are past that they asked you to decide who Isaiah Chance is and who he is and how he got to be that if he's worth saving as Ms. Finkelstein said mitigation does not excuse mitigation explains I'm asking you to look at Isaiah Chance the full human being and decide whether death is appropriate if death is the answer and death we would argue is never necessary you heard from his entire family during the penalty phase and like I said a doctor seven different witnesses from seven somewhat different vantage points but I all told you essentially the same thing from Victoria Gray she described his mother she described him as quiet gentle close with his family never violent someone who really didn't want to play football who had goals wanted to be a merchant seaman an entrepreneur who was trying to build something she told you him and his entire family had hobbies martial arts that they would do together because they loved each other and they genuinely wanted and loved to be around each other think about her what it takes to raise six children not on her own but in Jacksonville and each one of them know that they are loved Isaiah Chance clearly knew he was loved by his mother he told you that himself through his interviews with the doctors told you that by how he acted with his father how he acted with his grandparents how he acted with his children he got that from his mother she gave after serving came back to Jacksonville who after getting divorced from his mother stayed in his child's life stayed in Isaiah Chance's life when he would help him with his schoolwork he saw him struggling and he said hey you know they reminded him of himself you're like me I struggled keep going I see you not an excuse but just I see you I see you working he told you something else he said that Isaiah called him all the time and every time he hung up the phone he said the same thing beforehand he said I love you to his dad every single time something so ingrained it was subconscious or subconscious but he said no one's listening when you're talking to your father on the phone it's not performative it's just something you do and he decided at some point like I said maybe subconsciously that every time he talked to his dad he wanted to let his dad know that he loved him that is not something again that he decided to do performatively that just shows you that's him as a son heard from his grandmother Elizabeth Jordan Nana I think she said she said he was used to sit in her lap when he was a baby and if he could he would do it today she told you that her and papa used to take them the grandchildren on vacation take them to church they were there for the grandchildren and when they needed Isaiah he was there for them she told you when papa was sick he was I believe seven days he was in a coma Isaiah Chance didn't call and see how he was doing he didn't text and see how he was doing he showed up he stayed at the hospital until he woke up and then when they needed someone when papa wanted to go home to be with his wife in Atlanta she couldn't care for him on his own they called Isaiah Chance and he showed up time after time I think it's what like a five hour drive from Jacksonville to Atlanta and he made it over and over again for years to be with his grandparents to help take his 260 pound grandfather out of bed when his grandmother couldn't when he was 19 20 and 21 when most kids are thinking only about themselves Isaiah Chance realized when family calls you show up and he did that I think that's an important part of Isaiah Chance and who he is someone with value and I ask you to remember that as you deliberate you heard from Michelle Smith his godmother knew him she said before he was born had a good relationship with him and she said she would always tell him the truth that's AC kicking on thankfully she supported [02:27:23] Speaker 6: I'm sorry to interrupt you it sounds like the AC was kicked it's a good thing though you heard [02:27:39] Speaker 5: from Nashawn Nix his former stepfather his mentor and he was someone I thought was a very important witness it's not blood related to Isaiah Chance or his mother obviously didn't have to be here he was on Isaiah's life from 7 to 12 so a little while ago and he built an organization whose entire purpose was identifying young men who can be reached and investing in them and he saw many that couldn't be reached and he showed up here he told you when he was with Isaiah he noticed things he would go to school meetings he would talk to him after school he would talk to his guidance counselor he noticed things the family saw as well he was pushing for tutoring for structure and for support and years later after he was out of Isaiah's life no longer with his mother Isaiah Chance needed letter of recommendation to be a merchant seaman and he went to Mr. Nix and Mr. Nix saw something in Isaiah Chance and he put his reputation on the line and he wrote that letter of recommendation for him that's not obligation that is not sentiment it's the man who spent his career learning to see who people are and he saw something in Isaiah Chance and we're asking that you see the same thing you heard from Miss Wade she's known him from about when he was 16 years old when he was becoming an adult he said when she needed someone to house sit when she needed someone to pet sit and anyone who knows pets knows that that's a serious obligation someone to let someone else watch their pet she called Isaiah Chance she never had any issues she never had any trust issues he did it every time that's not someone you let do that unless you genuinely trust that nothing will happen she told you he would talk to her about his plans for life specific plans his goals what he wanted to accomplish and she plans to stay in touch with him while he's in prison tells you everything about what kind of person inspires that kind of loyalty six witnesses six different relationships telling you six different years of Isaiah Chance's life different eras all telling you the same thing he was quiet respectful gentle loving non-violent a young man who needed a little more structure than the world gives to most people and there's the science Dr. Tracy Heartache forensic psychologist she spent hours with Isaiah Chance she did actual IQ and academic testing she reviewed school records going back to when he was in preschool but before that let's talk about what she said when she noticed him he was quiet he was mild-mannered he wanted to be there he wanted to do the test he was not depressed and he kept saying the same thing essentially throughout the testing I'm smart I didn't do great in school but he wanted to impress her and he used some big words and I would say he used some correctly and some incorrectly like he did with Dr. Warner he got a full-scale IQ of 71 that's what she got through the testing at age 22 he reads at a 5th grade level his math is at a 3rd grade level the things that a lot of us take for granted in life that we get through life are generally harder for Isaiah Chance not impossible just harder she reviewed his Duval County school records which I believe Dr. Werner glossed over he had 3 tests done in his school and they all said the same thing at age 4 at age 10 and age 12 three different other evaluators independent at age 4 said he had issues with speaking and we heard from multiple of his witnesses telling you that he was nonverbal at that time it's a corroboration at age 10 he got the same score as Dr. Hardigot corroboration and at age 12 he was even a little bit lower again and then he's removed from that school people with IQs in this range are not unintelligent they can form relationships they can have jobs we're not asking you to weigh his IQ as an excuse but just this context something you can weigh when you're back there deliberating on mitigation she also diagnosed ADHD and the clinical observations you saw from school showed the same thing off task over 30% of the time way more than his classmates and it was never treated the state talked about a co-defendant not having IQ tests because they didn't provide corroboration and they talked about that as a bad thing well we have corroboration from three IQ tests and they don't want you to look at that and I'm asking you to look at those IQ tests to corroborate Dr. Hardig's and go against what Dr. Warner said and the last thing I want to say about Dr. Warner is she said that she trusted the testing that was done in school trusted the testing that Dr. Hardig did trusted and agreed with the results of both but disagreed with the diagnosis which is based on the results and I would say that doesn't follow we also heard that he could be vulnerable in the wrong environment he has a lifelong need to belong and that's a human that's a character it's not a character flaw it's just a human need but I want to talk about what the right environment looked like that looked like what Mr. Nix provided when Mr. Nix was there when he provided structure when someone was paying attention made real progress Isaiah made real progress tells you something Isaiah is not someone who's beyond reach he's someone who's done better when someone is paying attention we're not here to ask you to believe that he will never struggle again we're asking you to believe that struggle will be worth it that he has value that it matters that he is not what happened in the worst moments of his life now the state pointed to the aggravators they spent a lot of time on the aggravators and we're not here to minimize what happened not at all we're not here to argue those either we're here to talk about this young man him as a human being about things that make his life worth saving we're here to tell you we believe the mitigators outweigh the aggravators like Ms. Finkelstein said you're going to get a list of the mitigators I'm not going to go through all of them I do want to go through a few of them and you give whatever weight you believe to these mitigators Isaiah Chance has no significant history of prior criminal activity you heard from his mom his dad no arrests nothing his age at the time of the crime he was 21 years old at the time of this crime he was a young man like I said he suffers from borderline intellectual disability and untreated ADHD this loving relationship with his children which I'll get to in a little bit this loving relationship that you heard from his family and friends that goes both ways Isaiah Chance did not carry use or threaten to use a firearm during the commission of this offense let me be clear this in no way lessens his guilt but it is a fact that you can consider when you're back there that he did not have a firearm during this offense and again there's the catch all anything else you heard from any witnesses on that stand that you saw you believe is a mitigator you can use Isaiah Chance is a son a brother a grandson but grandson and father whose life has meaning to others his children Cabri Kylan and Amiri his mom told you he was a great father he wanted to be involved with his kids Miss Wade told you he was always calling her asking her for advice he wanted to be involved he was present he was trying to be a good father he was 21 years old with three kids actively seeking out guidance to be a better father that is not behavior of someone who doesn't care that is behavior of a young man who understood that fatherhood mattered and was trying imperfectly to rise to it he cherishes fatherhood and has a great relationship with his three children that is not nothing for a 21 year old who may have some limitations trying to figure out how to be present for three children that effort means something it tells you something about who he is when the stakes are personal he showed up for his children just like he showed up for his grandparents it's not a legal argument it's a fact about what it means to be human his kids are growing up right now one day they will be old enough to know their father to write him a letter to ask him a question only he can answer and he will be in prison but a father can still be a father behind bars a letter a phone call a presence we are simply asking for you to leave that door open seven people testified in the penalty phase six who have known in parts for all of his life and a doctor Dr. Hardik told you the clinical side people like Isaiah are a little more vulnerable they want to be long they want to follow because it's safer than the alternative he spent his entire life working harder than other people failing and trying again he put his family first and truly sacrificed on multiple occasions when it mattered he sat in church with Nana and Mr. Nix and talked about God and life he was a great brother and a great and attentive father someone's son someone's grandson someone's father he's a human being with limitations and with love you heard about the continued support he will get while in prison on behalf of his mother who raised him with structure and love his father who's there for a son and still wants to be there for a son Elizabeth Jordan who sat in her lap his entire life and Nashawn Nix a man who owes him nothing but showed up here to tell you that he loves him and he better know that he still loves him we are asking you to spare his life the family did not need to come here they chose to they sat in the witness chair knowing everything that you know and they want to tell you that this person is not beyond saving they're not in denial they know what happened they still came here and they're still asking that says something about Isaiah Chance that no test score or school record can fully capture tells you the people who know him best who have seen every version of him have decided he's worth fighting for and we are asking you to agree with him the death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst and we would argue that Isaiah Chance and the facts of this case do not meet that criteria he's not the kind of person for whom there's no threat of redemption or no evident conscience that the death penalty was designed for death is never required again as I say in my opening the law favors life because it always gives you the opportunity to give mercy we are asking you to consider that a person can do something unforgivable and still not be beyond the reach of mercy Isaiah Chance will spend the rest of his life in prison he will carry what happened to him every day we are not asking for you to forgive what happened we are not asking you to forget it minimize it or look away we are asking you to look at the full human being everything I've talked about and everything you've heard from the stand and decide that death is not the answer justice will be served he will spend his life in prison today's the last day he's going to wear street clothes last time we'll put a suit on mercy does not mean forgetting mercy means choosing deliberately and with full knowledge what you know to let someone live the law the law gives you [02:38:53] Speaker ?: the law gives you [02:38:53] Speaker 5: that option gives you the option for a reason we are asking that you use it we are asking that you spare Isaiah Chance's life thank you [02:39:00] Speaker 1: okay very good Ms. Timmy on behalf of Davion Murphy [02:39:06] Speaker 3: good morning Daveion Murphy was born January 10th 1997 a blank canvas wide-eyed to the world not knowing his limitations not knowing good from bad but children learn what they see every day when children learn criticism they learn to condemn when they learn hostility and violence they become violent and fight when children live with instability they become unstable now as I told you in my opening Florida has no parole there's no gain time as Davion Murphy sits there now and all these other defendants they will be given life in prison the only question for you is when he dies he dies either by natural causes or by execution that's the only decision that is left to make and this is probably the most important decision that you will make in your life the fate of another human being is in your hands I want to pose a question to you and that is what good comes from executing Davion Murphy seems like a simple question it's not so simple I think it was Gandhi that said an eye for an eye eventually leaves everyone blind there is no need to execute Davion Murphy life in prison a life along with thinking about this every single day perhaps even maybe walking down the same hallway as his father stomping the same concrete in those hallways in the Florida Department Corrections as his father his uncle his younger brother that testified his blood cousin Rashad Murphy a vote of death will only be the next statistic in this gang war that started in Jacksonville it would be just another statistic and what comes from executing another human being nothing comes from it it's not going to bring Charles Jones back it's not going to change the events that occurred on June 23rd of 2023 it simply perpetuates the violence that started long long ago not here in Hillsborough Hillsborough County but in Jacksonville as you heard from the state's witnesses the detectives the gang detectives so much violence though in these gangs that they have detectives that are given certain gangs to follow that's what Davion Murphy grew up in he grew up in East Jacksonville Davion Murphy wasn't born into a life of privilege and opportunity he was born into violence and instability what chance did he have and folks this is I'm not offering you an excuse for these I'm simply offering you context of the facts context Davion Murphy was 12 years old when his father who suffered from schizophrenia was given life in prison for murder along with his uncle his parental uncle who also was given 50 years in prison for murder when he was 12 years old his father was gone absent from his life and you heard from his youngest brother Adam Gooden his youngest brother who broke down in front of you all well they have this they grew up in the same environment they had the same mother they had different fathers but if you recall Adam Gooden also told you that his father was incarcerated in prison this is a generational violence instability insecurity that these men grew up in when I say these men I mean Davion and his cousins and you got to see this first hand through the state's witnesses their detectives as well as through the individuals that testified on Davion's behalf take a technically intellectually disabled child with learning disabilities throw him into the violence and crime in the streets of Jacksonville what happens they look for comfort they look for a father figure what becomes the father figure for them the streets the gangs as you saw not only did Dr. Eisenstein we'll get to that in a moment but Dr. Eisenstein testified that he was borderline intellectually disabled they had long ago indicated that Davion Murphy had a mental disability he was in special classes he was in IEP classes he had to repeat various grades and he also suffered traumatic brain injury from all the various events that occurred in his life multiple motor vehicle accidents fights falling off a golf cart or running a golf cart into a tree and folks these scans these images weren't done because he was found guilty the state knows better than that [02:47:49] Speaker 2: these scans [02:47:59] Speaker 3: were done to show you that Davion Murphy suffers brain damage what does Dr. Rubino have to come in here to risk his medical license to say and you saw the scans and you can take it back if you want to look at them to say that he suffers from brain damage and the state had its radiologists a diagnostic radiologist of whom I respect Dr. Glickstein I respect but he doesn't have the knowledge and the upkeep of the new technologies he wasn't able to he hasn't seen I think it was once an MRI DTI which is commonly done in these radiology facilities why would a neuropsychologist recommend scans that a neurologist send to a radiology facility that then conducts the scans and gets those images perform those big I suggest to you that he does have brain damage you can watch the interrogation video yourself that's demonstrative evidence of the state of mind of Davion Murphy and his intellect now let's talk about a little bit about mitigation as you've heard it's not a numbers game it's not a calculation it's not who's got more mitigation it's about the weight and the significance of that mitigation I'm not going to address the aggravating factors I'm not going to waste your time I'm not going to insult any one of you but the mitigation that was presented on behalf of Davion Murphy is substantial and is great and it deserves great weight and you also have to remember that the mitigating circumstances have to be proven not beyond a reasonable doubt but by a preponderance of the evidence I submit to you that Dr. Eisenstein who met with Davion Murphy seven times in person over the course of six months for over 20 hours has a better idea better understanding of what Davion Murphy is about not Dr. Warner who met with him by Zoom for 80 minutes and then when asked by the state about why she had such limited time was because the jail only gave her three hours or something like that well if you only had three hours then say you need enough time you didn't have enough time you can't render a proper diagnosis or render an opinion because you didn't have enough time Dr. Eisenstein had enough time he took the time to know Davion Murphy went through his records his medical records and why did we not provide Dr. Eisenstein with police reports video tape interrogation videos and such because we wanted to make sure that there was no bias that Dr. Eisenstein met with Davion Murphy that met with Davion Murphy without any bias in his mind that's why I suggest to you that Davion Murphy's life is worthy Davion Murphy is worthy that he is redeemable that he's made a grievous mistake and that he should be punished he will be punished he's being punished every day and he will be punished every day for the rest of his life there's no doubt but it's your job to look at him as an individual all of these defendants as individuals and not compare one to the other but look at each of them as an individual person and then decide whether the mitigation which has a lower burden and rightfully so has been proven in substantially or outweighs the aggravation in this case death sentence it doesn't life is the appropriate sentence there's nothing that a death sentence is going to do in this case so the mitigators that you have on behalf of Dave John Murphy is it the capacity of Dave John Murphy to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of law that's one he's got 13 but once again it doesn't matter it doesn't matter if you've got 50 or if you've got 100 it's not a numbers game it's not who's got more or who's got more aggravators versus mitigators the second one the capital felony was committed while Dave John Murphy was under the influence of extreme mental and emotional disturbance that's where Dr. Isis comes in that's where Dr. Rubino comes in with their testimony the age of Dave John Murphy he was 27 but when you consider the testimony of Dr. Eisenstein the age of the person on the outside isn't necessarily the age of the person on the inside Davia Murphy suffers from traumatic brain injury yes Dr. Rubino testified that he did and doctors they disagree they do disagree you have to decide who who you believe and once again we don't have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these mitigators exist just a preponderance of the evidence greater weight of the evidence David Davia Murphy is in the borderline range of intellectual disability let's talk about Dr. Warren for a minute she indicated it was low average I think is what she testified to but she's not doesn't have the ability to do any psychological testing didn't do an IQ test didn't do really basically anything she did a mental status examination of Davia Murphy that was not rebutted wasn't disproved Davia Murphy did not have a stable role model in his life no he did not neither did his younger brother Davia Murphy was diagnosed with schizophrenia yes you heard from Winston Murphy who was very reluctant to testify but yes that was his brother and he testified that his brother who was Davia Murphy's father was diagnosed with schizophrenia Davia Murphy's father was incarcerated for life when Davia Murphy was 12 years old yes Davia Murphy took on a parental role for his younger siblings yes because he had to I think Adam couldn't testify that he had to sell or they would sell a playstation or something like that to get food Davia Murphy is loved by his family yes yes he is and then the existence of anything else that means that mitigation to you can be anything else that you decided to be you get to decide maybe it's something I didn't say or wasn't presented to you maybe it's something that just because just because you think life is more appropriate than death than execution because this vote is individual to each one of you it's an individual moral judgment that each one of you have yes you have to go back and discuss the evidence and things but it's your vote it's not anyone's vote and don't let anyone else try and convince you of what your vote should be when you go back there it's your decision folks gang violence tears apart families neighborhoods and futures and that's exactly what it did with all these families Charles Jones family the death penalty only guarantees that that suffering and that violence continues life in prison for Davion is a just punishment it removes him from society and we can be tough on crime without the death penalty and just giving him life in prison now this is the verdict form and once again just like in the guilt phase excuse me just like in the guilt phase just because you didn't hear from Davion Murphy like you heard from Sean Gathright in the penalty phase doesn't mean you can hold that against him he's got the right to remain silent and you cannot use that against him or any of the defendants that did not testify in the penalty phase but here's the verdict form it's three pages long but on that second page is where it has jury recommendation and you might think well it's just a recommendation it is but your recommendation will be given great weight by the court so when you vote it's going to be the vote it's going to be the deciding factor as to what these individuals get life or death if fewer than eight jurors vote for the death penalty your recommendation must be for the penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole fewer than eight that means seven of you can vote for death five of you can vote for life and they will get life I submit to you that you really don't need to even get there folks because you can just go right to the bottom and find that Davia Murphy should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole that is a just punishment in this case this is not the most aggravated of murders and the least mitigated what good would it do to execute an intellectually challenged brain damaged 29 year old male who's grown up on the streets of Jacksonville just trying to survive the gangs and the violence he lived and did what he saw every single day he's going to be punished enough you can tell Davia Murphy that he did a terrible thing this is terrible it's tragic but you can also tell him that he's redeemable and he has worth with a vote for life thank you [03:02:15] Speaker ?: thank you miss jimmy and mr herndez [03:02:20] Speaker 1: on behalf of rashad murphy [03:02:21] Speaker 7: council good morning ladies and gentlemen I want to begin again by thanking you very much for your service your attentive service in this case as you know I am speaking on behalf of rashad murphy I cannot imagine an attorney having a more overwhelming responsibility than advocating for a man's life and here we are as we go through the evidence that was presented and the mitigating circumstances that have been proposed I want to make sure that there is no attempt to misstate if I say something I've got notes you have your notes if I say something that you remember differently please rely on your notes and your collective memories you've heard it several times during this case and I'll go briefly through it your recommendation is extremely important it carries great weight the judge has to give it great weight and the mitigating circumstances that have been proposed by Rashad Murphy and the other defendants only have to be proven by the greater weight of the evidence if you believe it more than likely exists you can consider it and give it the weight that you decide it deserves and those mitigating circumstances can be facts about the case or it can be facts related to Rashad Murphy as a person as a human being such as the mental issues that have been presented his childhood his history his accomplishments it can also be your personal observations of Mr. Murphy's behavior during the last six weeks as you've had a chance to observe him for six consecutive weeks and your vote although you deliberate each vote is individual and although there is a weighing process you ultimately are being asked to decide what is the appropriate vote either a life recommendation without the possibility of parole or death ladies and gentlemen nothing that I am saying during my closing arguments is designed to in any way minimize the tragedy for Charles Jones and his family death resulted regardless of the details his family the family of Mr. Jones grieves regardless of the details all that is a given before your analysis in this penalty phase begins and the same principle applies to the crime of murder all murders involve some level of violence some less some more but they all involve some level of violence all first degree murders involve either premeditation or while committing a serious crime such as robbery or rape nevertheless and that's why we're here nevertheless not all first degree murders warrant the death penalty and I submit to you that in the case of Rashad Murphy the death penalty is not warranted but we need an analysis of the facts of the case but also of the person who Rashad Murphy is you heard from several family members you heard from fiance his fiance Charmaine Steiger and the mother his fiance that they've known each other for believe 15 or more years and the mother of his four children you also heard from two of his aunts Hazel Dickerson and Jamila Murphy as well as his uncle who's in prison who testified here as well Winston Murphy they all made it clear to you that they love him very much and that he has a lot of redeeming qualities they all confirmed in one way or the other they all confirmed Mr. Murphy's difficult childhood his personal history being an excellent father and brother to his siblings they all had some knowledge some more some less of the physical and emotional abuse that Rashad Murphy suffered growing up that he witnessed gun violence and lived in a high crime area that he was raising six children when he was arrested in this case his four children and two of his younger siblings despite working and having a limited income he was raising six children you heard that he was consistently employed and that you also heard from Miss Steger his aunts that they would continue to have contact with Mr. Murphy and visit him in prison as he would be serving if he ultimately gets a life sentence without the possibility of parole and with something that Mr. Harmon said yesterday I want to make it clear I think you would agree the fact that he has some loving family members such as his fiance but going back to his childhood having two loving aunts does not erase does not in any way erase the extremely difficult childhood that he had without a father and with a mother with a serious drug problem and obviously he was taken out of the family home and placed into foster care because of that you also heard from Dr. Collins a licensed psychologist he testified and has previously testified as an expert in neuropsychology he was appointed by the court and paid by the state of Florida he was asked by me to evaluate the defendant Mr. Murphy and possibly testify in this case which he did obviously before he testified he was provided reports not not everything in the case but provided records to review some about the case itself so that he would have some sufficient amount to become familiar with the facts of the case and the evidence in the case but also about the defendant before he even sees the defendant at the jail things that would give him knowledge of the defendant as a person his background his childhood history his mental history jail records because by that time he has been in jail on this case for a period of time and then he has contact with the defendant on two occasions I believe his testimony that he ultimately spent a total of seven hours with Mr. Murphy part of that contact is to interview him just chit chat have a conversation with him and the purpose of that is to get to know him to find out to determine whether he is going to be cooperative and whether he is going to provide truthful information because whatever he says can be compared to records that he's had a chance to review and then part of that time is to conduct psychological testing standard accepted test to analyze and diagnose Dr. Collins testified and none of this really is being refuted by the state he was cooperative there were tests done to find out if he was in any way faking and malingering that was not the case he was definitely cooperative and not malingering the important thing or at least one of the important things is that the interview the testing and the records that were reviewed by Dr. Collins were all consistent clearly indicating that Mr. Murphy was being truthful regarding his self-reporting about his childhood about his background about his history and about his mental state Dr. Collins testified that Rashad Murphy suffers from anxiety and depression stemming from childhood trauma that would be intensified throughout his adulthood that he in fact he Rashad Murphy was physically and emotionally abused by his father by his step father and in the foster home and that his mother suffered from severe drug addiction and ultimately died where leaving Mr. Murphy with having to by this time he's of course out of the foster home and having to take care of his younger siblings he confirmed Dr. Collins confirmed that drugs and violence were common in his community in the community that Rashad Murphy grew up in when he was not in foster home died and gentlemen I I'm trying not to be repetitious but the fact is that Rashad Murphy was born into violence and suffered a lot of abuse and neglect he was removed from his father's care by the state when he was a small child and all of this is confirmed by Dr. Collins not just talking to Rashad Murphy but looking at all the records and then as I said a minute ago is that back after I think it was 2018 when his mother died he adopted his younger siblings he was employed but obviously a limited income trying to not only financially support his fiance his four children but also his two younger siblings Dr. Collins also confirmed other records and of course you heard from Ms. Deeger that he had a loving relationship with his childhood sweetheart and mother of his four children that he was an excellent father hard worker throughout his adulthood the diagnosis by Dr. Collins is that Mr. Murphy suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD and as you know it's a mental condition triggered by experiencing and or witnessing terrifying events and disrupts daily life it affects his judgment his decision making as an adult and it goes back to his childhood once someone has PTSD it doesn't magically go away it can be treated with psychotherapy and medication but his condition is always there and does not go away and it relates back to his childhood and again I should point out that and I'll get to it in a minute that Mr. Harmon and cross examination I think tried to discount it somewhat but there was never anything presented by the state refuting this diagnosis there was also the fact that his father Rashad's father had mental problems that was documented and also that Mr. Murphy's condition was noted in the jail records by state doctors before Dr. Collins even got involved so you have corroboration that is not disputed by the state discounted but not disputed there is no expert saying otherwise you also through the testimony of Dr. Collins you heard that several examples of Mr. Rashad Murphy trying to help himself better himself as a person while in prison ladies and gentlemen that evidence has more than one indication I suggest to you that it does show that he's trying to better himself as a person but it also shows that it's indicative of not being a troublemaker adapting to prison life following strict rules and regulations that if he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole he would not be a problem a troublemaker in prison he's been in jail two years without any problems and as I said trying to better himself you have the exhibits that you can look at when you go back to deliberate there were three composite exhibits presented to you one is defense exhibit one dealt with education he got his GED while in prison while in jail not prison he got his GED while incarcerated on this case he also there's a series defense exhibit number two has several I forget how many eight or nine attached to that exhibit about different religious certificates and classes that he attended different religions just showing religious awareness but it also was presented during the testimony that he not only has been taking these classes he has been teaching some of these classes to other inmates he serves as a mentor in jail I keep saying I don't mean to say prison Hillsborough County Jail and then defense exhibit number three is a composite of certificates dealing generally with self-help parenting classes dealing with alcoholics anonymous emotional regulation things of that nature and ladies and gentlemen I think what someone I'm saying it feels too obvious to mention none of this testimony and exhibits are offered as legal defenses or excuses for the homicide but as you know all first degree murders are inexcusable but they certainly are offered as valid mitigating circumstances showing that the defendant Rashad Murphy has many redeeming values showing that a life recommendation is appropriate the court when we get to part of the instructions when we get to specifically Rashad Murphy the defense is offered to you a series of proposed mitigating circumstances and that they will be read to you one of them and I think there's a couple that have to do with the fact that he has no prior criminal history and we'll talk about that in a minute no prior felony convictions there's also a couple they're kind of interchangeable that Rashad Murphy his age at the time of the offense he was only 30 years old when the homicide occurred there's no dispute of this it's there for your consideration the state never is not disputing it it was stipulated to the another proposed mitigator is Rashad Murphy has a history of physical and emotional abuse as a child consistent with childhood post traumatic stress disorder you heard from dr collins you heard from the record from the jail doctors I think there's certainly corroboration of that and again something that has not been refuted by the state you you will also hear that Rashad Murphy has maintained a loving relationship with family and friends while incarcerated and again you heard that from the fiance Ms. Steger his uncle and his aunts another proposed mitigator is that Rashad Murphy has developed religious and spiritual awareness while incarcerated in fact you heard testimony that he was religious before but certainly the exhibits and his family's testimony corroborate that also Rashad Murphy helped raise his younger siblings including working jobs at a young age to provide family support certainly that was corroborated by the records and by the testimony of his family and the same thing with the next one which is Rashad Murphy as a minor was removed from his primary home and placed into foster care due to negligent and abusive situations in the primary home also Rashad Murphy has displayed appropriate behavior and the ability to follow rules while incarcerated and again that's corroborated not just by the exhibits and the records he has been no problem whatsoever while he's been incarcerated and that's an indication of what type of prisoner he would be if he is sent to prison for life you also are being told the existence of any other factors in Rashad Murphy's character background or life or the circumstances of the offense that would mitigate against the imposition of the death sentence and we'll get to I will touch base on some of these mitigators but if there's something I forgot something that you believe in your observations or hearing please rely on that as well let's go back to some of these his age which is two of the mitigating proposed mitigating circumstances he was 30 years old at the time of the homicide he's presently 32 years of age to some extent I would suggest that that age is an interesting number he's still a young man he's still a young man he was only 30 at the time of the offense and it certainly that alone is offered as a significant mitigating circumstance however it also is old enough to have established a pattern good or bad it certainly at the age of at the age of 30 you've been an adult for 12 years it's certainly old enough to have become a career offender but here we have no felony convictions whatsoever so here we have 12 years of adulthood to look at and we have a good pattern with with his background and environment with the violence surrounding him with the abuse inflicted on him I suggest to you that it's extraordinary that he made it to the age of 30 with no criminal history let's go back a minute to the PTSD as I said before the state is not refusing the mental condition no state doctor testified saying refuting the opinion of doctor collins I think it's fair to say that the state is suggesting that considering everything it's not important because you found the defendant guilty of first degree murder and as I said before it's not offered as a defense but it is presented to you as a significant mitigating circumstance for your consideration and I think it's somewhat disingenuous for the state in their cross examination to imply that the defendant's mental condition is normal for someone who's incarcerated of course being in jail getting arrested gotta be stressful but that's not what we have here the defendant's childhood is not normal getting abused by his father and stepfather is not normal ladies and gentlemen growing up in the violent environment is not normal being abused at the foster home is not normal neglect due to his mother's addiction is not normal touching back briefly on his behavior while he's been in jail in this case and as I said it shows that he knows he's not a he doesn't cause trouble at the jail but I want to I think it should not I think it should be emphasized that he can be in addition to having contact with his family he can be a positive influence on other prisoners he's been teaching Bible classes he can mentor other inmates now in jail and later in prison and as I said he would as you've heard testimony the evidence has shown that his behavior has shown that he would continue to be able to maintain a living relationship with family and friends while in prison ladies and gentlemen of the jury all first degree murders are not the same that's just the bottom line and that's a decision a vote that you have to consider the facts and circumstances are always different all defendants convicted of first degree murder are not the same and of course as a corollary to that not all first degree murders warrant a death sentence I suggest to you that the death sentence should be reserved for the worst cases all murders involve the death of a human being all murders involve some level of violence but here we don't have any torture we don't have multiple deaths here we don't have separate incidents it was all one event a terrible event event I mean there's no way to describe it otherwise a terrible event but only one contemporaneous event you [03:29:52] Speaker ?: you [03:29:52] Speaker 7: determine justice you determine justice was served with your verdict as you've been told more than once Rashad Murphy will die in prison regardless of your vote and based on your verdict a severe punishment is appropriate and there's only two choices I submit to you that justice will be served it will be further served by severely punishing Rashad Murphy by making him spend the rest of his life which according to normal life expenses expect to see could be another 50 years to spend the rest of his life in prison to live under strict rules and regulations without the basic freedoms we normally take for granted that we normally enjoy [03:30:55] Speaker 2: and [03:30:59] Speaker 7: I try not to be repetitious but I need to go back for a moment to this lack of any prior felony convictions I can't I just I cannot ladies and gentlemen I cannot overemphasize this despite the terrible environment the defendant grew up in despite those scars despite the mental ill issues he lives with on a daily basis and will continue to live with despite whatever treatment he gets the defendant Rashad Murphy has no prior felony convictions not one and I ask you when you decide on your vote compare that fact that stipulated fact to a career offender compare compare that fact to someone who has a prior record of similar crimes or violent behavior compare that stipulated fact to the state's argument that the attempted murder serve as an aggravating factor despite being only one contemporaneous event compare that stipulated fact to the state's argument that an aggravating factor is that the defendant was a criminal gang member all that all those allegations all those factors despite the fact that he has no prior felony convictions I submit to you that the mitigating circumstances outweigh any aggravating factors presented by the state but in any event I submit the mitigating factors clearly show that a life recommendation is warranted with respect to Rashad Murphy ladies and gentlemen of the jury I have not offered this evidence or made this closing argument to in any way justify the homicide my only point is that the evidence presented all corroborated demonstrates that a life recommendation is appropriate for Rashad Murphy and finally I want to talk about Rashad Murphy's children two sons two daughters between the ages of seven and thirteen pretty much the ages that the defendant was when he was experiencing some of this abuse and separation from his family growing up despite being in prison for the rest of his life he can still he was an excellent father he is an excellent father and he can still be a positive influence on his children he has been and would continue to be a loving and supporting supportive father please please let him carry on as daddy to major to Avery to prosper and Gabrielle guiding them to do the right thing thank you [03:34:48] Speaker 1: thank you Mr. Hernandez okay