NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – The sentencing trial for the man who pleaded guilty to killing a Nassau County deputy in 2021 resumed Tuesday morning with more testimony from prosecution witnesses and ended with emotional testimony from the deputy’s family.
Among those who testified Tuesday was the medical examiner, who shared autopsy photos with the jury.
Following testimony, the state rested its case and defense attorneys will begin presenting their case on Thursday. The defense has more than 40 witnesses listed, including several psychologists.
The jury for the sentencing trial must decide whether or not to recommend the death penalty for Patrick McDowell in the shooting death of Deputy Joshua Moyers.
A victim advocate read a powerful statement from Moyers’ fiancée Ivy Carter.
She said the two of them were inseparable. He lived and breathed law enforcement and she spent many nights not worrying about if something would happen, but when.
She would go on ride along with him and got to see firsthand the love he had for his job.
Then she described the best day of her life.
“He walks in front of me, his whole body shaking, and asked to marry me. It was the best day of my life. I never got to walk down the aisle. He was taken from me,” the statement read. “I will feel guilt for not just eloping...One teammate showed up at the door banging. He said something along the lines of ‘Josh is hurt we have to go right now.’ I never left the hospital. I feel like part of me is still there.”
Now, Carter said, she is left praying and asking God to help her get over the hatred and honor his memory.
It was clear how angry Moyers’ brother Jordan was on the stand.
His testimony made some jurors cry.
Jordan Moyers talked about getting the call of what happened and contemplating if he should pack his black suit because there was no way his brother wasn’t going to make it.
But then he shared how his legs gave out from under him and how he didn’t know it was possible to feel such grief.
He couldn’t keep a job and said how he feels that all anyone can think about was the way his brother was brutally murdered.
“Even good memories aren’t what they were,” he said. “In the same moment I think about time we spent playing in the woods by the house, I think about holding his limp hand trying to tell him things he couldn’t hear. Thoughts of us waking up early on Christmas morning, playing together at the pool, or riding 4-wheelers in the woods together are now always shared with thoughts of how Josh was killed. It’s so horrible that it ruins everything. When Josh was murdered, this community lost a great cop, a civil servant who cared for people, for his community, and for making it a better place I’m not the only one sharing in this loss. And when Josh was murdered, I lost my brother and it has torn every aspect of my life into shreds.”
Victim impact statements ended with Moyers’ mother Brenda.
She talked about their special bond and how he had so much more to live for.
She said in her mind, she sees her son when she looks at other deputies and these unexpected reminders overcome her.
“I used to enjoy creating crafts and making things. Now I go to the store and cry and buy plastic flowers to stick in the grave,” she said. “He deserved so much more. I buy live flowers because he is alive in me. It’s a horrible nightmare as parents as our child was brutally murdered while he protected the community he loved and called home. One of the most heart-wrenching pains is knowing all the good there is no lineage of him in our family to go forward.”
Judge James Daniel decided earlier this month that Florida’s current death penalty recommendation rules would apply in the case, meaning prosecutors only need eight jurors to agree to recommend the death penalty.
McDowell pleaded guilty a little over a year ago to first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, injuring a police dog and eight counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
McDowell’s other charges stemmed from an encounter in the woods during a manhunt, which ended after five days when McDowell was found hiding out in a bathroom building at the Kirsten Higginbotham Sports Complex on Sept. 28, 2021.
Monday’s testimony began with the jury being shown dash cam video of the Sept. 23, 2021, traffic stop off U.S. 301 that ended in Moyers’ murder -- as the first deputy on the scene testified about what he saw.
The deputy told the court it wasn’t common for Moyers to ask for assistance on these calls, which made him want to get to Moyers fast when he got the call. At one point, the deputy said, he was driving 136 mph just to get to Moyers -- almost like he knew something was wrong.
When he arrived, he found his friend and mentor lying on the ground, shot in the face. Moyers, 29, died from his injuries on Sept. 26, 2021.
‘Either him or the cop’
Noelle Gale, who was in the van with McDowell when Moyers pulled him over, also testified Monday morning.
“He thought the cop was calling for backup and didn’t want to go back to jail,” Gale said. “He said he was going to run from the cop.”
Then Moyers turned on his lights, and Gale said McDowell said nothing else to her.
She also testified she didn’t know there was a gun in the car until he pulled it out and shot the deputy.
“I asked him why he did that. He told me it was either him or the cop. I was freaking out, and he just kept telling me he was sorry,” Gale said. “I was yelling at him.”
Gale said McDowell grabbed her by the arm, they ran into a wooded area, and she told him she wanted to go back. He let her go, and she called 911.
The defense pointed out that McDowell let her go willingly and also mentioned that she is currently facing a drug possession charge.
Body camera video from Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office K-9 Chaos’ handler, Officer Dale Cullen, was also shown in court Monday. The video shows Cullen letting Chaos go when he realizes the dog might have found something in the woods.
“Two gunshots rang out. Heard Chaos yelp. Thinking Chaos’ been hit, and I returned fire -- 18 rounds to what I thought was gunshots coming toward me,” Cullen said.
The defense argued there was only the woods between McDowell and the officers, and McDowell could have seen their flashlights at some point.
Cullen said they sent Chaos in first to take one for the team, knowing that an officer had just been shot. Cullen said he returned fire to save his life and the lives of the other officers.
The traffic stop
According to McDowell’s arrest affidavit, he told Gale when he saw Moyers’ lights that he wasn’t going to stop: “I’m not going to jail.”
But McDowell did eventually stop, pulling off U.S. 301 onto Sandy Ford Road, and stopping just short of the railroad tracks — a decision that would later prove fateful for Moyers.
According to the reports, McDowell gave Moyers a false name and didn’t have a driver’s license. Moyers also learned the tag on the burgundy-colored minivan belonged to a different vehicle. Investigators later learned the vehicle had been stolen from Jacksonville.
Gale told investigators later that when Moyers approached the van asking for their IDs, McDowell reached behind his seat for his handgun. Moyers asked McDowell if there was a gun inside the van, and he said no.
Gale told an FDLE agent that when Moyers asked for their IDs, she showed Moyers a photo of it on her phone, and McDowell handed over what she thought was an ID.
Just then, the railroad crossing arms activated with the bells ringing and lights flashing. Moyers turned to look at the crossing arms for just a moment, and when he turned back, McDowell had a gun in his face — and pulled the trigger, shooting Moyers just below his eye, investigators said.
Video from Moyers’ dash cam shows McDowell quickly leaning out of the van and firing again at Moyers, hitting him in the back. Then he slammed on the gas and sped through the railroad crossing just as the arms were coming down, investigators said.
WATCH: Recording of Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers pulling over Patrick McDowell
The backup deputy Moyers had called for arrived about 30 seconds later and found him lying in the road.
That’s when the “Officer Down” call went out.
The aftermath
Moyers had been shot in the face and back and wasn’t breathing.
The first four deputies to arrive at the scene after the Officer Down call took turns with Deputy Barnes, administering CPR to Moyers until paramedics arrived.
RELATED: Traffic stop to trauma scene: Desperate efforts to save Deputy Joshua Moyers revealed in reports
Deputy Hall said he ran back to his patrol vehicle at one point, frantically throwing things from the trunk to get out an AED and other medical supplies. Deputy Cone said once they had the AED, he cut Moyers’ shirt open so the AED pads could be applied.
Once paramedics arrived, Hall directed them to Moyers, explaining his injuries, and then the deputies helped move Moyers onto the stretcher.
Deputy Holmberg, who had also been helping with CPR at the scene, gave the ambulance an emergency escort to prevent delays in arriving at UF Health Jacksonville’s trauma center.
Despite their efforts, Moyers’ injuries were too severe. He died days later at the hospital.
The manhunt
Gale said he yelled, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I had to! I had to!,” as he sped away from the shooting scene, and she answered, “No you didn’t!” and demanded to be let out of the van.
She said McDowell drove a short distance away and told her they had to hide. She said once out of the van, she ran back toward deputies, and he ran the other way -- sparking the five-day manhunt.
Records show McDowell served in the U.S. Marines, and a former colleague described him as a “survivalist” and trained shooter.
In a video released as part of discovery material in the case, K-9 Chaos can be seen picking up McDowell’s trail in the woods in the hours after the shooting. After the dog starts barking, gunshots can be heard and the dog yelps in pain. Multiple officers then fire their rifles in unison into the darkness.
This encounter is what led to McDowell’s injuring a police dog charge and the eight counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
But McDowell remained on the run for days and hundreds of law enforcement personnel searched for him in the Nassau County woods.
More than 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers had focused their search efforts on a 5-square-mile perimeter southwest of Callahan while a statewide Blue Alert was out for McDowell.
Also included in the evidence were texts back and forth from McDowell and his mother while he was on the run and interviews with McDowell’s girlfriend, Brieana Tole, who tried to help McDowell escape capture.
Tole later pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact after she was accused of driving to the sports complex where McDowell was hiding out in an attempt to get him out of the area and escape arrest, according to an arrest report.
Despite dozens of shots fired in the woods by law enforcement during the early encounter, McDowell was found days later at the Callahan sports complex with only two minor flesh wounds.
The capture
In drone video of McDowell’s capture at the Kirsten Higginbotham Sports Complex off Ball Park Road, McDowell can be seen crawling out of a concession stand and then being subdued by K-9 Huk.
Moyers’ handcuffs were used to arrest McDowell, Nassau County Sherrif Bill Leeper noted.
McDowell was treated for a dog bite wound and then transported to UF Health Jacksonville in a Nassau County rescue accompanied by several deputies in cruisers.
After McDowell’s arrest, his father, Richard, issued a statement to News4JAX.
“I would like to say that I’m glad no one else got hurt and I hope that it will help Deputy Moyers’ family knowing he’s not still at large,” Richard McDowell said.
RELATED: ‘My deepest regrets’: Father of man accused of shooting Nassau County deputy issues statement
He also said his son was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and other ailments and “turned to drugs” but had been through Veterans Treatment Court and “was doing very well” until the COVID lockdown.
“I had resigned myself to the fact that he might overdose or take his own life,” Richard McDowell wrote. “I never dreamed he would take someone else’s life.”
McDowell’s mental health and documented Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are expected to be front and center during the sentencing trial.