Client guilty of running, defense says
Andre Delancy committed a crime the night a Broward deputy was ambushed and shot to death, but it wasn’t murder, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Delancy, 31, was at the scene of the murder of Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Tephford, defense attorney H. Dohn Williams said. He even helped his two co-defendants get away and try to go into hiding.
“Running away is a crime,” said Williams, “but not the one he’s charged with.”
Delancy is one of three men on trial for Tephford’s murder and the attempted murder of Deputy Corey Carbocci. Tephford was killed during a traffic stop in Tamarac on Nov. 11, 2006. Carbocci had arrived for backup moments before the shooting began.
Prosecutors say Eloyn Ingraham, a passenger in the car Tephford pulled over, called Delancy and a third co-defendant, Bernard Forbes, who showed up at the Versailles Gardens apartment and opened killing Tephford wounding Carbocci.
Lawyers for the three men have not presented a united front. In his closing argument Wednesday, Williams said the evidence shows Forbes was the shooter. Forbes’ DNA was found on some of the complex fire, and weapons and ammunition, while Delancy’s DNA was found on a red shirt he was wearing that night.
“There was no gunshot residue on the red shirt,” Williams said, arguing that his client did not fire a gun. The only witness Williams called during the trial was a man who lived in Versailles Gardens who said a man fitting Delancy’s description was far from the shooting scene while the bullets were being fired.
Williams also challenged a prosecution expert’s theory that two shooters were responsible for the ambush. Williams argued there was only one, Forbes, called to the scene by Ingraham. There was no evidence, Williams said, that Delancy was included in any conversation between the other two defendants.
The accused killers face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy, and life in prison if convicted of Carbocci’s attempted murder.
Hilliard Moldof, Forbes’ lawyer, is scheduled to present his closing argument today. After that, the jury will not return to court until Monday, when they will hear from Ingraham’s lawyer, Daniel Aaronson.
Broward State Attorney Mike Satz, who has been aided throughout the trial by senior prosecutors Jeff Marcus and Carolyn McCann, is scheduled to present a rebuttal on Tuesday.
The jury will not return to court on Wednesday, so the deliberations would not begin until March 8 at the earliest, Broward Circuit Judge Paul Backman has said in court.
rolmeda@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4457 or Twitter @SSCourts and @rolmeda