Court tosses murder conviction; man wins new trial in 2012 killing
A new trial has been ordered in the 2012 slaying of a former high school wrestler in Delray Beach.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal on Wednesday threw out a 2015 conviction and life in prison sentence for Thomas Byrd in the shooting death and robbery of 22-year-old Dustin Deckard.
Appeals are still pending for Byrd’s co-defendants in the case, Kevin Sammiel andShermanColson; the alleged accomplices are serving life terms.
Byrd and Sammiel, halfbrothers from Boynton Beach, stood trial together in June 2015, followed by a November2015 trial for Colson, the so-called getaway driver fromLakeWorth.
Prosecutors say Deckard was killed for his iPhone and pocket change at 12:38 a.m. Aug. 30, 2012, as he walked along the 1100 block of Southwest 10th Street. Byrd was accused of firing the fatal shot in Deckard’s back.
A three-judge panel for the appeals court concluded that Byrd, 27, should receive a new trial because a recorded statement from Sammiel was improperly used as evidence to discredit the testimony of an alibi witness — Byrd and Sammiel’s aunt.
Sammiel told detectives he was elsewhere at the time of the shooting: “I just told you, they came and they picked me up from my auntie’s house.”
According to the appellate opinion, Sammiel’s statement could have contributed to the guilty verdict for Bryd, so the use of it during the trial can’t be considered harmless.
“Without Sammiel’s statement there was nothing to rebut the alibi other than circumstantial evidence,” said Jacob Noble, Byrd’s appellate lawyer.
“Thomas Byrd has always denied any involvement in this senseless act of violence,” Noble told the Sun Sentinel.
At their trial, attorneys for Byrd and Sammiel argued there was insufficient evidence for convictions and they blamed Colson. The defense lawyers said witnesses in the case didn’t have a good look at Deckard’s attackers or the driver of a van observed at the crime scene.
But at Colson’s trial, his lawyer argued he had nothing to do with the shooting.
The three men were pulled over by police in Boynton Beach about 13 minutes after the killing. Byrd was caught after a chase on foot and the gun was never found, according to court records.
Prosecutors argued Colson admitted to police he saw Byrd with the gun before the shooting and the three had discussed their intentions in the van before spotting Deckard walking alone on the street and targeting him.
The former New Jersey wrestling standout had moved to Delray Beach about a year and a half before his death to fight a heroin addiction. He had achieved sobriety, but had a relapse andmovedinto a sober home just hours before the attack.
mjfreeman@sun-sentinel .com, 561-243-6642 or Twitter @marcjfreeman