Nelson’s fate still with jurors
Jurors began deliberating Wednesday afternoon whether convicted killer Scott Edward Nelson should be executed for kidnapping Jennifer Fulford from her employer’s Winter Park home and killing her.
After eight hours of deliberating, the judge sent the jury home. Jurors will reconvene at 9 a.m. Thursday.
The 12-member jury must decide if Nelson, 55, should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison for the brutal 2017 murder of 56-year-old Fulford, of Altamonte Springs.
Jurors must vote unanimously to send Nelson to death row. The jury started deliberating around 1 p.m.
Nelson was found guilty last month of killing Fulford after kidnapping her Sept. 27, 2017 from the Winter Park home of Reid Berman, where she worked as a caregiver and house manager. A transient on federal probation from a 2010 bank robbery, Nelson pushed his way into the home with a knife after Fulford opened the door, he told detectives in an
interview after his arrest.
After binding her with zip ties and wrapping her in a comforter, he put her in the trunk of her own car and drove her to an ATM, where he withdrew $300 from her bank account, Nelson said. Despite Fulford pleading for her life, Nelson drove her to a vacant field of Apopka-Vineland Road in southwest Orange County.
He told detectives he wrapped duct tape around her entire head and stabbed her seven times before leaving her bound body in the field. Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner Joshua Stephany testified the duct tape could have caused Fulford to suffocate, and the stab wounds would have led her to bleed to death.
During the murder trial’s closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Kelly Hicks said Fulford “became a means to an end” on Sept. 27 when Nelson killed her.
“He had a goal and she was part of that plan,” Hicks said. “Jennifer Fulford is dead because the defendant wanted an opportunity to come into a public forum, take a witness stand — not once, twice — and tell the world about the people and the entities that he erroneously believes have wronged him.”
Nelson is a “narcissist” who wanted attention, Hicks argued, and the only way to get it was to commit a heinous murder.
“He wanted the opportunity to rail against the world,” she said. “And he’s only going to get that if he goes big.”
That’s why he chose to rob an affluent Winter Park home, was caught in front of surveillance cameras and dumped Fulford’s body near Disney World, a global tourist destination, Hicks said.
“He wanted to get caught — it is that simple,” Hicks said. “He wanted to make sure that he was prosecuted because that’s the only way he guarantees taking that witness stand. Why else would he tell law enforcement where the knife is? Why else would he tell law enforcement where the keys are? It was all part of the plan.”
But his defense attorneys say Nelson’s history of chronic trauma, including an abusive childhood, addiction issues, multiple head injuries, sexual assault and the extreme conditions he endured during 25 years of incarceration, caused him to suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder, depression and bipolar disorder. When he was let out of prison in 2017, Nelson had little medication and a colostomy bag.
Assistant Public Defender Chelsea Simmons argued to the jury in closing statements that it doesn’t make sense for Nelson to try to get caught, and he’s “not capable” of long-term planning because of severe cognitive deficits.
“If that was really someone’s intention to get caught, why not do it more?” Simmons asked “Why not have some more murders? … He didn’t know what he was doing because he didn’t plan it this way.”
Nelson’s confession to police was also inconsistent with evidence presented during the trial, Simmons said. Nelson told detectives he stabbed Fulford in the heart and twisted the knife — but the medical examiner found no evidence of this, she argued.
Nelson on the witness stand blamed Fulford’s death on his federal probation officer, who he claims caused him to lose his job, which led to him being homeless and deciding to rob a home. But his employer testified he didn’t fire Nelson — he only told him to stop living in the company’s office.
Simmons said Nelson has a pattern of believing conspiracy theories and embellishing his statements when he’s aggravated. The convicted killer testified that much of what he told detectives about the brutal killing was “untrue,” part of a confession he hoped would lead to better treatment in custody.
On the witness stand, Nelson told jurors he never intended to kill Fulford because “she had never done anything to me.”
Nelson is also willing to manipulate others for basic needs like food and a single cell, Simmons argued, which is why he called himself “a homicidal manic” in front of jurors this week and said he wanted to be sentenced to death.
“He wants his own cell and will say what he wants to say to get on death row,” Simmons said. “Mr. Nelson doesn’t get to decide if he will be executed. That’s your decision.”
The convicted killer will die in prison, but the jury will decide whether Nelson becomes infamous, Simmons argued.
“Mrs. Fulford’s son testified she is the one that will be remembered,” she said. “Your decision is whether Mr. Nelson fades away and does life in prison, or whether he resurfaces with each execution date and goes back in the news.”