Police: 2 who allegedly killed Tamarac man to face trial

TAMARAC — “Call 911.” Those were the last words Ivan Brandt spoke to anyone, other than the men who killed him.

Surveillance video captured the deadly encounter inside Brandt’s home.

In the video, Brandt walked in circles inside his Tamarac home, on the phone, sometimes looking at some papers as he made his way from his kitchen to his dining room. Then for the last time in his life, Brandt answered the front door.

Now, the two men accused of bursting into Brandt’s home and killing him five years ago could stand trial for murder as early as Tuesday.

“Who are you?” Brandt asked the men. “What do you want?” Brandt’s final words were relayed to police by Rebecca Maloney, the woman with whom he was speaking when the men arrived. He told her to call the police.

The video footage, defense lawyers say, doesn’t tell the whole story. Whether the video tells enough is for the jury to decide.

The video shows Richard Andres and Jonathan Gordon struggled with Brandt, who fought back with a paring knife. According to a police report, the men tried to bind Brandt with zip ties.

Gordon, who had a concealed weapon, pulled it out, but the gun fell to the floor.

Andres picked it up and opened fire. A neighbor heard three shots along with a man’s voice screaming, “No! No! No!” Brandt was shot twice, according to the autopsy. Detectives reviewing the surveillance video believed he was shot three times, according to their report.

The video, which has no audio, shows Andres shooting Brandt.

Brandt stabbed Gordon multiple times and apparently stabbed Andres as well. When the shooting was over, Andres raised his hands to his head.

He and Gordon left, apparently without taking anything. According to Gordon’s arrest paperwork, Andres told investigators they went to Brandt’s home to rob him. Defense lawyer Mitch Polay denied his client ever made any such statement. But Andres did identify Gordon to Broward Sheriff’s detectives.

Polay declined to discuss other details about the defense strategy other than to note that one of the shots Andres fired was a warning shot as Brandt was stabbing Gordon, a possible indication he will argue justifiable homicide in selfdefense or defense of another person.

But that defense will likely have to address Andres and Gordon’s presence at Brandt’s home in the first place. In text messages after the shooting, Andres allegedly described the confrontation as a drug deal gone bad.

According to other court documents, Maloney, 46, was on the phone with Brandt for several minutes before his death. She told detectives that they were discussing Brandt’s ex-girlfriend, Jessica Johnson. Brandt had just learned that his girlfriend had taken up with a new man, Andres, at a Hollywood motel.

Brandt had been tracing Johnson’s location using his iPad and her iPhone’s “find my iPhone” function, according to a police report. One witness told detectives that Brandt believed his

girlfriend was being “pimped out” by her new man. Brandt had gone looking for his ex at the Hollywood motel but did not find her

friend of Andres told Broward sheriff ’s detectives after the shooting that Andres claimed to shoot a man after being shot at — he ap

parently had been stabbed during the struggle that ended Brandt’s life.

Before the fatal encounter, Brandt had printed out a South Florida Sun Sentinel article from 2012 chronicling Andres’ 2012 arrest for battery and animal cruelty.

Andres’ wife at the time

said she feared she would be her husband’s next victim after she watched him beat her kitten, bury it alive, dig it up and beat it some more.

Andres pleaded no contest to the animal cruelty charge and served six months in jail.

Attorneys expect jury se

lection in the murder case to conclude Monday, with opening statements taking place Tuesday.

It remains to be seen whether a recent Florida Supreme Court death penalty decision will force a postponement.

Lawyers for the defendants are asking Broward

Circuit Judge Barbara Duffy to strike the jury panel that was groomed for months to hear the case. The lawyers say they will need time to assess whether. the latest change Ain legal precedent will affect their ability to protect their clients from conviction and execution.

Brandt