One convicted, one freed in Lauderdale murder trial
A Broward jury issued a split decision Friday, convicting one of the men accused of killing Fort Lauderdale resident Nelson Heck during a 2011 burglary attempt while setting a second man free.
Volvick Vassor, 23, was immediately sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison.
His co-defendant, accused gunman Rivky Tamar, 25, was found not guilty.
Tamar applauded after the verdict was read, and defense lawyer George Reres embraced him.
Vassor was handcuffed and returned to the Broward Main Jail. From there he will be transferred to state prison.
“I have never had a client who was more insistent that he was innocent,” said Reres, a former assistant public defender. “He didn’t think a jury would send an innocent man to prison.”
Unlike Tamar, Vassor took the stand during the weeklong trial.
But his testimony was not enough to convince the jury that a third man, Jaquan Jean-Baptiste, 20, was lying when he identified Vassor as the organizer of the burglary plot.
Heck, 66, had been burglarized the day before, so he was armed and ready when four men came to his door on Nov. 15, 2011.
According to trial testimony, he struggled with Jean-Baptiste and burglar in the hand.
Jean-Baptiste, who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against his former co-defendants, said Tamar stepped in, pistol whipped the victim and shot him to death.
But the jury doubted his story enough to acquit Tamar.
A fourth defendant, Christepher Zetrenne, pleaded guilty in 2012 to one count of accessory after the fact.
He was not called to testify.
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