NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – Patrick McDowell’s defense continued to call witnesses Monday from its list of dozens who are testifying on behalf of the man who admitted to fatally shooting Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers during a 2021 traffic stop.
Mentors of Patrick McDowell said Monday on the stand that they blame themselves for what happened.
Before McDowell pulled the trigger and killed Moyers, they once considered McDowell a success story.
They said the Veterans Treatment Court program he was in was all about accountability, and McDowell was meeting the standards -- up until COVID-19 hit.
After that, McDowell ended up in jail in Georgia on drug charges. McDowell called his mentor to bail him out, but he wouldn’t.
After a year, McDowelle got out and his mentor begged to meet up with him and help him, but McDowell never showed.
The next time his mentor saw him, he’d been labeled a cop killer.
“I got physically sick,” said Veterans Treatment Court member David Abramowitz. “I threw up because that wasn’t the man I knew. I blamed myself. Why didn’t I...most veterans know when something like this happens usually the chain of command is responsible. And I was part of that chain of command. And I just felt so bad for him, for the police officer, obviously, the family, the sheriff in Nassau County.”
He said seeing the tragedy made him question himself as a mentor.
Months after the arrest, Abramowitz went to visit McDowell, who told him he was living in hell and encouraged the other veterans to follow the treatment.
The prosecution argued that a lot of what McDowell told the Veterans Treatment Court during screening to get into the program wasn’t true, especially about the casualties he saw and the fighting he did while in Iraq. Witnesses testified McDowell was never in direct combat but was affected by the loss of friends who were killed.
On redirect, the defense asked the mentor if McDowell was referring to suicides, but he said he didn’t remember.
McDowell’s family also said that who the jury sees now is a changed man, someone who had serious problems with drugs, did an awful thing, is remorseful for what he did and has now given his life to God.
On cross-examination, it turned into a question of why his family didn’t intervene beforehand.
On Tuesday, the defense will call five to six witnesses, two of whom will be experts, likely psychologists.
By Wednesday the defense will call another expert and the state will have an expert as a rebuttal witness.
Wednesday afternoon the judge and attorneys will go over the rules for jurors to follow in the charge conference and then by Thursday, we expect to hear closing arguments.
Defense testimony
Defense testimony began last week with McDowell himself taking the stand, saying he owed Moyers’ family an apology and an explanation.
McDowell’s father also testified, answering questions about his son’s personal history, and his mother, who lives out of state, testified via Zoom. His grandmother, grandfather, a childhood friend, his ex-wife, several Marines who served with McDowell and multiple psychologists have also testified.
RELATED: ‘My deepest regrets’: Father of man accused of shooting Nassau County deputy issues statement
McDowell’s 13-year-old took the stand Friday, smiling when the court showed pictures of him with his dad on fishing trips and on his grandfather’s boat.
The teen said if his dad ended up serving a life sentence in prison he would continue to visit and have a relationship with him.
McDowell’s mental health and documented Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are expected to be front and center as the defense continues to make its case for McDowell to be sentenced to life in prison.
The jury must decide whether or not to recommend the death penalty for McDowell, and 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’s ex-wife Shauna, the mother of his teenage son, testified Friday that McDowell wouldn’t talk with her about his experiences in Iraq, but she said she saw the effect it had on him in his sleep and his behavior.
After his second tour in Iraq, she said, he changed the most and the couple, who had been together since she was 18 years old, eventually separated.
Shauna said before McDowell shot Moyers, he told her in a Facebook message that he was having a hard time and that he would call his son soon. She said she suspected that McDowell was using drugs.
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.
The Sept. 23, 2021, fatal shooting during a traffic stop was captured on Moyers’ dash cam.
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.
Military service
Marines also shared their experience serving with McDowell and all spoke highly of him as a smart, good person who was heavily relied upon.
The Marines also talked about their own experiences being too proud to get help when they came home, and the hurt they felt for those who took their own lives after serving.
“I have suffered through numerous issues, PTSD. It’s a community of alpha male attitudes where nobody wants to admit to weakness or be seen as a person who can’t survive. There are concerns of being labeled and losing rights to firearms. Not until 2022 when I went into a program that helped did I improve my quality of life,” one Marine said.
As he spoke, McDowell put his hand over his eyes.
In cross-examination, the prosecution pointed out that the Marines all had prior deployments before being with McDowell and that there was no time during their deployments with McDowell that there was any direct combat from enemies and they were never struck by IEDs.
Here’s how Daniel Rayransom described learning about what McDowell did.
“I always considered him a protector, a top-tier Marine and one of my closest friends. It really took me by storm, and shocked me pretty good. I knew there had to be some other implication that made him do that. I assumed there was drug use or alcohol because that was never the guy I knew.”
‘I’ll never forgive myself’
McDowell began his testimony on Thursday by apologizing to Moyers’ family.
“I took the life of a man that was better than me. I’ll never forgive myself for that,” McDowell said.
He said he remembers the night of the shooting vividly and relives it often.
“It makes me physically sick to think about it,” he said. “There is nothing worse you can do than take a man’s life for doing his job.”
McDowell said he was a coward that day and that Moyers did his job so well that the deputy knew McDowell was up to no good with “one look.” He said Moyers was polite and friendly and nothing he did provoked his actions.
McDowell also apologized to the community for the fear he created during the five-day manhunt following Moyers’ shooting.
“My family is going to be dealing with the shame from this probably forever,” he said.
During the testimony, Moyers’ family members who were in attendance became emotional.
During cross-examination, McDowell gave chilling insight into his thought process during the moments before and after he shot and killed Moyers.
“When I took the pistol out of the holster and put it down beside me, I checked the chamber to make sure I had a round loaded because I knew that if (talking) failed, then I was willing to do whatever I needed to do to get away and that included shooting the deputy. And I did that without a single, single thought of taking a man’s life. I was 100% focused solely on myself,” McDowell said. “Whenever he reached for the door handle — I’ve stated several times that I felt pressured. I think I said that to some of the experts, and I did because it seemed like my options were closing to me. All my options of getting away without violence were closing to me. When he grabbed the door handle and the crossing arms came down, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to get away from him unless I, unless I stopped him. So, when he asked me to step out, I turned my body, reached for the seat belt, and I took the gun out, and I shot him. And then as he fell, I fired two more rounds to make sure that he wouldn’t come after me. And then I took off and I just left him there in the street assuming he was dead.”
After he fired the fatal shots, McDowell was on the run.
He said he then told the woman who was in the van with him to turn off her phone because he knew how investigations work. His stepfather was a police officer and his father was in the military.
After the woman said she didn’t want to stay with him, he said, he told her to turn on her phone, give him 5 minutes and then call 911 or they were going to kill her and she could face charges.
He said he knew the deputies who were going to be after him would do their best to kill him but said he was trained in the Marines to fight back and fight first.
So, he grabbed a rifle and set up a hideout. He then saw deputies coming toward him in the woods. McDowell said he still had the option of shooting them.
“That would serve the purpose of stopping the immediate pursuers and also give future pursers a lot more caution and make them less effective in the search because they would be more concerned about their safety,” he testified.
“So to be clear, when you fired you did it deliberately to instill fear in those officers?” prosecutor Mark Caliel asked.
“No, whenever I fired -- actually while I was behind the rifle and I’m not sure why the feeling came to me that I didn’t want to hurt anybody else. It was at that time I started to feel pretty awful about what I had done to the deputy, and I had no intention of doing that to anybody else,” McDowell responded.
‘Part of me is still there’
Before the state rested Tuesday afternoon, jurors heard emotional testimony from members of Moyers’ family, including his fiancée, brother and mother.
A victim advocate read a powerful statement from Moyers’ fiancée, Ivy Carter, who said the pair were inseparable. She said Moyers lived and breathed law enforcement and that she spent many nights not worrying about not 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 asks 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...”
Then she described one of the worst days of her life.
“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,” she said.
Moyers died days after the shooting at the hospital.
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 brought tears to some jurors’ eyes.
Jordan Moyers talked about getting the call of what happened and contemplating if he should pack his black suit -- because he thought 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 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.”
He also spoke about how the loss affected more than his family.
“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,” Jordan Moyers said.
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 she sees her son in her mind 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.”
Dramatic video
Prosecution testimony last week 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.
According to McDowell’s arrest affidavit, he told a woman who was in the van with him when Moyers pulled him over that he wasn’t going to stop when he saw Moyers’ lights. “I’m not going to jail,” he told her. The woman was identified in court as Noelle Gale.
McDowell did eventually stop for Moyers, pulling off U.S. 301 onto Sandy Ford Road, and stopping just short of the railroad tracks — a decision that would 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.
In the video, that’s when the railroad crossing arms suddenly activated with 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.
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 slams on the gas and speeds through the railroad crossing as the arms come down.
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. His frantic “Officer Down” down call can be heard on Moyers’ dash cam video.
The deputy, who testified last week, 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 original call for backup.
At one point, the deputy said, he was driving 136 mph just to get to Moyers -- almost like he knew something was wrong.
RELATED: Traffic stop to trauma scene: Desperate efforts to save Deputy Joshua Moyers revealed in reports
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.
The manhunt
Gale testified last week, repeating what she told investigators earlier.
“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.”
Gale testified that after McDowell shot the deputy and drove away, she told him she wanted out and he 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. McDowell ran the other way, sparking what proved to be a five-day manhunt.
More than 200 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers searched for days for McDowell in the Nassau County woods.
Body camera video from Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office K-9 Chaos’ handler, Officer Dale Cullen, was also shown in court last week. The video shows K-9 Chaos picking up McDowell’s trail in the woods in the hours after the shooting.
Cullen lets Chaos go when he realizes the dog might have found something in the woods. And then Chaos starts barking.
“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.
Multiple officers joined Cullen and fired their rifles 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.
The capture
McDowell’s friend, Brieana Tole, who tried to help McDowell escape capture, 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 the dozens of shots fired in the woods by law enforcement during the encounter with K-9 Chaos, when McDowell was found days later, he had only two minor flesh wounds.
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.
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.
When McDowell was arrested, deputies used Moyers’ handcuffs, Nassau County Sherrif Bill Leeper noted.