Re-enacting deputy’s slaying
Three men accused in deputy’s killing
Jurors hearing the case against three men accused of killing Broward Sheriff's Deputy Brian Tephford in a late-night ambush in 2006 went to the scene of the crime Thursday. Prosecutors positioned Tephford's patrol car, left, as it was found the night of the shooting. They also examined the patrol car of Deputy Corey Carbocci, who was wounded in the shooting. Jurors surveyed the scene from multiple angles, seeing for themselves the bullet holes they'd only heard about through four months of testimony.
Jurors hearing the case of three men accused of gunning down Broward Deputy Brian Tephford in 2006 were brought on Thursday to the very spot where his life was taken.
They crouched next to the open door of his patrol car, positioned exactly where it was on Nov. 11, 2006. They peered into the vehicle and examined the bullet holes. They paced between Tephford’s car and that of another deputy wounded in the shooting.
For about an hour Thursday morning, the two vehicles were returned to the scene where Tephford had stopped to question the driver of a Toyota Corolla in the parking area of the Versailles Gardens complex in Tamarac. According to testimony, Eloyn Ingraham was a passenger in that Corolla, which was driven by his girlfriend.
The second patrol car, driven by Deputy Corey Carbocci, arrived at the scene for backup in 2006 after Tephford told a dispatcher he had stopped the Corolla for having an incorrect license tag.
Tephford was killed and Carbocci injured in an ambush minutes after Carbocci’s arrival. Prosecutors believe Ingraham contacted his friends Andre Delancy and Bernard Forbes, who arrived and
opened fire. The men fled the scene, according to testimony.
All three defendants and their lawyers were at Versailles Gardens Thursday morning when jurors arrived to inspect the vehicles and view other nearby scenes that had been described for them since the trial began in early June.
Defense lawyers had objected to having jurors visit the shooting scene during daylight hours.
“We wanted the jurors to see what it was like at night so they could tell for themselves what witnesses could have seen or could not have seen,” said defense lawyer Mitch Polay, one of the lawyers representing Delancy.
Prosecutors told Broward Circuit Judge Paul Backman they wanted to show the positioning of the victims’ patrol cars to set up later testimony from crime scene reconstruction experts.
The case has proceeded slowly, with prosecutors calling roughly 50 witnesses and introducing 464 exhibits into evidence to date.
Defense lawyers H. Dohn Williams, Hilliard Moldof and Daniel Aaronson made it clear during opening statements in June that their clients are putting up a divided front, each professing innocence without vouching for the other two.
Prosecutors Mike Satz and Jeff Marcus have been unable to explain why the defendants would be willing to shoot and kill a law enforcement officer.
The murder trial has been interrupted by planned vacations and breaks as well as an unplanned delay caused by Hurricane Irma, which closed the courthouse for a week and a half in September.
The trial is scheduled to resume Oct. 31, after a previously scheduled break in testimony.