Post by CCADP on Aug 27, 2005 20:27:24 GMT -5
Jury finds man guilty of murdering Atlantic Beach father and teen
son----Victims were killed with an AK-47 in 2004; jury to decide on use of
death penalty.
A jury found a Jacksonville man guilty Friday of 2 counts of 1st-degree
murder and one count of attempted murder in the 2004 shooting deaths of a
13-year-old Atlantic Beach boy and his father.
Thomas Eugene Bevel -- who faces a possible death sentence -- stood
passively as the verdict was read, while the teen's mother hung her head
and wept silently.
"It still doesn't bring my baby back, but I'm glad the verdict came back
the way it did," said Sojourner Sims Parker, mother of Phillip Sims. She
praised police and prosecutors for their work.
Jurors will return Sept. 6 to recommend to Circuit Judge L. Page Haddock
whether Bevel should be executed. It would be the 1st such sentence in
Duval County since 2003.
Parker said she hasn't decided whether she wants Bevel to be executed.
"I'm going to pray on that," she said.
Mayport Middle School student Phillip Sims and his father, Garrick
Stringfield, were fatally shot with an AK-47 rifle last year in
Stringfield's Colchester Road home, where Sims was visiting for the
weekend.
Felitta Smith, who was watching television with Stringfield, was shot but
survived and eventually identified Bevel, Stringfield's roommate, as the
shooter.
But during closing arguments Friday, Bevel's court-appointed defense
lawyer seized on her 1st identification of two masked gunmen. That matched
what Bevel, 23, told police after first saying he wasn't there, attorney
Refik Eler said.
"2 black males wearing masks got their way in ... and shot Rick
Stringfield and Phillip Sims and Felitta Smith," Eler told the jury.
Eler suggested a likely suspect was Bevel's younger brother, who owned 2
AK-47s and visited Smith in the hospital to ask her if she recognized who
shot her. That would explain why Bevel and his girlfriend were allowed to
live and why Bevel ultimately confessed -- to protect his brother,
according to Eler.
"Why on Earth would Thomas Bevel return with his girlfriend ... if he's
going to kill everybody in the house?" Eler asked the jury. "That
absolutely makes no sense."
But what makes no sense, said Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la
Rionda, is Bevel and his lawyers expecting jurors to believe he was
innocent when he lied then confessed to police and when the only living
victim identified him as the killer. Bevel finally told police he killed
Stringfield because he feared Stringfield was planning to kill him and
shot Sims and Smith because "he couldn't leave a witness," de la Rionda
said.
"We can sit here and speculate all day, but then there's the truth," de la
Rionda said after placing each of the eight bullets used in the slayings
before the jury, one by one.
"Which story do you believe -- the 1st one, the 2nd one, the 3rd one, or
the final one?"
He reminded jurors of Smith's testimony that she feared for her and her
family's lives because Bevel was still at large. That fear was heightened
when Bevel's brother showed up with a friend at the hospital, de la Rionda
said.
"She knew that the defendant knew her. She knew that he knew where her
family lived," de la Rionda said.
He also reminded jurors of letters Bevel sent to his girlfriend from jail,
urging her to change her story and tell police two masked men were
responsible.
The prosecutor acknowledged Stringfield had a long history of drug-related
crimes, as did Bevel, but said that doesn't mean he deserved to be "shot
in the face like he was and left there."
Phillip was innocently playing video games on the sofa when he was shot in
the head at close range.
"What did Phillip Sims do to deserve that?" de la Rionda questioned.
"There are no words that can truly describe the horror that occurred."
(source: The Florida Times-Union)
son----Victims were killed with an AK-47 in 2004; jury to decide on use of
death penalty.
A jury found a Jacksonville man guilty Friday of 2 counts of 1st-degree
murder and one count of attempted murder in the 2004 shooting deaths of a
13-year-old Atlantic Beach boy and his father.
Thomas Eugene Bevel -- who faces a possible death sentence -- stood
passively as the verdict was read, while the teen's mother hung her head
and wept silently.
"It still doesn't bring my baby back, but I'm glad the verdict came back
the way it did," said Sojourner Sims Parker, mother of Phillip Sims. She
praised police and prosecutors for their work.
Jurors will return Sept. 6 to recommend to Circuit Judge L. Page Haddock
whether Bevel should be executed. It would be the 1st such sentence in
Duval County since 2003.
Parker said she hasn't decided whether she wants Bevel to be executed.
"I'm going to pray on that," she said.
Mayport Middle School student Phillip Sims and his father, Garrick
Stringfield, were fatally shot with an AK-47 rifle last year in
Stringfield's Colchester Road home, where Sims was visiting for the
weekend.
Felitta Smith, who was watching television with Stringfield, was shot but
survived and eventually identified Bevel, Stringfield's roommate, as the
shooter.
But during closing arguments Friday, Bevel's court-appointed defense
lawyer seized on her 1st identification of two masked gunmen. That matched
what Bevel, 23, told police after first saying he wasn't there, attorney
Refik Eler said.
"2 black males wearing masks got their way in ... and shot Rick
Stringfield and Phillip Sims and Felitta Smith," Eler told the jury.
Eler suggested a likely suspect was Bevel's younger brother, who owned 2
AK-47s and visited Smith in the hospital to ask her if she recognized who
shot her. That would explain why Bevel and his girlfriend were allowed to
live and why Bevel ultimately confessed -- to protect his brother,
according to Eler.
"Why on Earth would Thomas Bevel return with his girlfriend ... if he's
going to kill everybody in the house?" Eler asked the jury. "That
absolutely makes no sense."
But what makes no sense, said Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la
Rionda, is Bevel and his lawyers expecting jurors to believe he was
innocent when he lied then confessed to police and when the only living
victim identified him as the killer. Bevel finally told police he killed
Stringfield because he feared Stringfield was planning to kill him and
shot Sims and Smith because "he couldn't leave a witness," de la Rionda
said.
"We can sit here and speculate all day, but then there's the truth," de la
Rionda said after placing each of the eight bullets used in the slayings
before the jury, one by one.
"Which story do you believe -- the 1st one, the 2nd one, the 3rd one, or
the final one?"
He reminded jurors of Smith's testimony that she feared for her and her
family's lives because Bevel was still at large. That fear was heightened
when Bevel's brother showed up with a friend at the hospital, de la Rionda
said.
"She knew that the defendant knew her. She knew that he knew where her
family lived," de la Rionda said.
He also reminded jurors of letters Bevel sent to his girlfriend from jail,
urging her to change her story and tell police two masked men were
responsible.
The prosecutor acknowledged Stringfield had a long history of drug-related
crimes, as did Bevel, but said that doesn't mean he deserved to be "shot
in the face like he was and left there."
Phillip was innocently playing video games on the sofa when he was shot in
the head at close range.
"What did Phillip Sims do to deserve that?" de la Rionda questioned.
"There are no words that can truly describe the horror that occurred."
(source: The Florida Times-Union)