No verdict in teen murder trial
An Oakland Park teenager on trial for murder, and the parents of the young woman he’s accused of stabbing to death, waited seven hours Thursday for a Broward jury to reach a verdict.
No decision was reached, and Broward Circuit Judge Tim Bailey asked the jury to return Friday to continue its deliberation in the case of D’Marcus Tucker, 18, who is accused of first-degree murder in the June 2014 stabbing death of aspiring chef Nicole Franco during a burglary in her home.
Franco, 19, was asleep in her bed when she was awakened by Tucker, who had slipped into her apartment at the Bridgewater Place complex in Oakland Park, prosecutor Maria Schneider said in closing arguments Wednesday. Tucker, 15 at the time, stabbed the woman in the chest multiple times, Schneider said.
Franco’s parents, who live in New Jersey, attended every session of the trial that started Friday.
The victim died within five minutes of the stabbing, enough time for her to make a frantic 911 call, not realizing the extent of her injuries, the prosecutor said. Franco told the dispatcher that the intruder in her home beat her. “She didn’t even realize she’d been stabbed,” said Schneider.
In his own statement to investigators, Tucker admitted stabbing Tucker and said he did it because he was “spooked” when she woke up. He also described himself standing in the woman’s bedroom doorway as Franco made the 911 call.
DNA evidence eventually connected Tucker to the crime scene, and he was arrested five months after the murder.
Defense lawyer Phyllis Cook said jurors have three reasons to doubt Tucker’s guilt. A knife found near the scene months after the stabbing could not be connected to the victim or the defendant, Cook said. The DNA evidence was not as definitive as the prosecution portrayed it to be, she said. And Tucker’s confession was coerced, a claim Cook supported by citing the tactics of the detectives interviewing the defendant.
“Under no circumstance was that knowingly, voluntarily and freely made,” she said of Tucker’s statement. “This is a confession that was coerced, involuntary and manipulated.”
Schneider countered that the knife matched the wounds on the victim regardless of whether it was the actual weapon used and that the DNA was unlikely to match anyone else on the planet.
She also said Tucker’s statement was voluntary and included details that were not fed to him by the detectives, such as the mention that the victim called 911 after she was stabbed.
Life sentences are usually mandatory for defendants convicted of firstdegree murder, but because Tucker was under 18 at the time, Broward Circuit Judge Tim Bailey would need to consider a lesser sentence if the jury finds Tucker guilty.
rolmeda@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4457 or Twitter @SSCourts and @rolmeda