ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Broken, suffering, incomplete. That's how loved ones of Amanda Colley and Lindy Dobbins describe their lives since the women were brutally murdered by James Colley Jr.
Colley's August 2015 shooting rampage in St. Johns County sent ripples of pain across the community of people who knew and loved his estranged wife and her best friend.
Colley, 38, was found guilty Wednesday of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two burglary counts and a count of aggravated stalking. A jury will decide this week whether to recommend Colley be put to death for the murders.
Florida law says such a recommendation must be unanimous. If it's not, Colley will be sentenced to life without parole. If the jurors recommend death, Maltz will make the ultimate decision, likely at a later date.
Loved ones of Dobbins, Amanda Colley and shooting rampage survivor Rachel Hendricks, who recounted the harrowing day during her testimony, said they are pleased Colley was convicted but they are anxious for the penalty phase to be over. Several have expressed their hope that Colley will be sentenced to death.
Emotional statements
Circuit Judge Howard Maltz told the jurors that the victim impact statements they heard Monday morning could not be considered “aggravating factors” in their decision on the death penalty.
But the emotional words will be difficult to forget.
Dobbins' husband, Chris Dobbins, recounted the day of the murders, pointedly looking in Colley's direction after saying his wife and her friend were “brutally and senselessly murdered by the defendant.”
WATCH: Emotional victim impact statements in James Colley murder trial
He said the first hint he got that something was wrong that day was a notification from his children's school that they were on lockdown. He learned later it was because deputies were searching for Colley, who had fled after the rampage.
When Dobbins called his wife, she didn't answer. She didn't respond to texts. Someone at her work said she'd gone home early to help a friend – Amanda.
Worried, Chris Dobbins headed home and found streets blocked in his neighborhood. He knew Lindy's car and phone were at Amanda's house. He walked up, and an officer called over a detective, who told him Lindy had been killed.
Dobbins said even harder than hearing those terrible words was knowing he had to tell his children their mother was never coming home.
He wept as he described what his family's life is like now and all that Lindy has missed. He said they leave an empty blue chair at Little League games and release balloons on Mother's Day and Lindy's birthday.
Amanda Colley's sister, Tammy Malone, said tearfully that she's watched her mother struggle with the loss of a child.
“My whole family's been broken by this one person and his horrible actions,” Malone said, adding that Amanda's children are suffering from the loss of both parents. “Her life mattered. It mattered to so many people in so many different ways. And he took that from all of us.”
Lindy Dobbins' father said his family has “suffered like no one should ever have to” and that they will never be the same people they were before she was killed. He said they've lost any feeling of security.
Amanda Colley's college friend, Beth Kennedy, said she reaches for the phone every day to call Amanda before she realizes they'll never speak again.
Aggravating factors
Prosecutors began the penalty phase explaining the aggravating factors that the jurors must weigh against the “mitigating circumstances” the defense will present.
Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Dunton said four factors apply to the murders of both women:
Another aggravating factor applies only to Amanda Colley's murder: the fact that she had an injunction out against her husband when he killed her.
Ambien defense
Colley's attorneys are hoping to convince at least some of the jurors that Colley was so heavily medicated that he might not have been responsible for his actions on the morning of the murders.
A forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Colley for two days, two years after the murders, testified that Colley had difficulty remembering the events of that morning and that he might have been having a parasomniac episode brought on by Ambien.
WATCH: Day 1 of penalty phase
Dr. Mark Mills said such episodes are similar to sleepwalking in the sense that the person seems rational or OK but when you ask them later they have no memory of the incident.
Mills said Colley told him he did cocaine and drank heavily the night before the murders and was out until 5 a.m., despite having a court hearing that morning on violating the injunction his wife had against him.
Knowing he needed some sleep, Colley said he took two half pills of Ambien and slept for a few hours before his father woke him up, saying he needed to get ready for court.
Mills said Colley was hurrying when he left and hit a mailbox, denting the car he was driving, and then continued driving to court. Mills testified that the episode was evidence of Colley's impairment that morning, but said the impairment was likely related only to the Ambien and other medications he might have been taking for pain and depression. He said the effects of the alcohol and cocaine would have worn off by that morning.
He said Colley could only describe the murders in “flashes” of memory, including getting the guns out of the trunk of his sister's car and firing at the home.
Prosecutors pointed out that the only evidence Mills had that Colley had taken the Ambien and was affected by it that morning was what Colley told him, and Mills acknowledged that.
Late in the day, Colley appeared to wipe away tears when a friend of 20 years he met in middle school recounted their friendship. At another point, Colley laughed as his fiend was talking about thing they did together when they were young.
Just before court recessed for the day, Colley told the judge under oath he was choosing not to testify in his own defense.
The sentencing hearing will resume Tuesday morning. It was expected the defense will call four more witnesses, but one, a medical expert, isn't available until Wednesday. The jury could begin deliberating the sentence by late Wednesday afteroon.
As Colley left the courtroom, he said, "I love you," to his family. They replied, "Love you," in unison.