Three accused in Tephford murder to present their cases

Prosecutors have had their say. Now, five months after opening statements in the trial of three men accused of the 2006 murder of a Broward Sheriff’s deputy, each defendant will present his side of the story.

One jury will decide the fates of Andre Delancy, Bernard Forbes and Eloyn Ingraham in the fatal ambush that claimed the life of Deputy Brian Tephford.

And each defendant appears willing to let the other two take the fall.

“The facts absolutely prove Delancy is an accessory after-thefact,” said Delancy’s lawyer, H. Dohn Williams, at a hearing on Tuesday. “We’ve never disputed that. But that’s not what he’s charged with.”

Prosecutors say Delancy and Forbes were the shooters. They showed up to help Ingraham get away from the law enforcement officers.

According to the prosecution’s witnesses and experts, Ingraham was a passenger in a Toyota Corolla driven by his girlfriend, Shante Spencer, late on Nov. 11, 2006. Tephford pulled the car over in the Versailles Gardens apartment complex in Tamarac because of a problem with the license tag.

While Tephford questioned the driver, Ingraham made a phone call to Delancy and Forbes. At about the same time, Deputy Corey Carbocci arrived to back up Tephford. Carbocci said he questioned Ingraham, who gave him a fake name.

When the first shots were fired, Carbocci said he didn’t realize what was happening until he felt a sharp pain in his leg and realized he and Tephford were under fire.

Prosecutors rested their case Nov. 2, and defense lawyers came before Broward Circuit Judge Paul Backman five days later to ask him to stop the trial because,

they argued, State Attorney Mike Satz, who is handling the trial personally, had failed to prove their clients were guilty.

Williams argued that the other two defendants did it.

Attorney Hilliard Moldof said the same thing, almost. His argument was that Forbes was the accessory and the other two killed Tephford.

But that goes against witness testimony, said Daniel Aaronson, Ingraham’s lawyer. Ingraham was in the vehicle Tephford had pulled over. He couldn’t have been the shooter.

All three are charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and the attempted murder of Carbocci, who survived the ambush.

Satz and his chief deputy, Jeff Marcus, called 51 witnesses and introduced 476 exhibits over the course of the prosecution’s presentation, which began in June.

The trial’s slow pace was anticipated — lawyers for all three defendants were given the opportunity to crossexamine each of the prosecution’s witnesses.

Neither Carbocci nor Spencer were able to identify Delancy and Forbes as the shooters, but witness Roger Del Prado, a friend and neighbor of Ingraham, said he was asked to drive the three defendants away from the scene after they fled.

When an undercover patrol car activated its lights behind his car, Del Prado said Ingraham told him not to stop.

“Just keep going. These crackers are going to kill us,” Ingraham said, according to Del Prado. Then Ingraham pulled a gun out of a towel he was carrying and positioned himself to shoot at pursuing police, Del Prado said.

Del Prado seized the opportunity to slow down, open his door and jump out the car.

Ingraham, Forbes and Delancy got away.

Another witness, the mother of Ingraham’s children, told the jury she helped the defendants by bringing them their passports.

The three men were found the day after the shooting at a Dania Beach motel. Three guns were in the room — two were used in the shooting. One of the guns used in the shooting had Forbes’ DNA on it, according to expert testimony. A fourth gun was on Ingraham when he was arrested outside the room.

Missing from the prosecution’s narrative is a clear motive for the shooting. Investigators found evidence in the motel room connecting Ingraham and Forbes to a robbery and kidnapping that had taken place in Tamarac a few weeks before the Tephford murder. But the men were acquitted at a later trial, leaving prosecutors unable to claim a connection between their alleged desire to avoid arrest and their alleged willingness to kill deputies.

Williams opened the defense side of the murder trial Wednesday with one witness, who said he saw Delancy around the time of the shooting apparently gesturing to another man. Delancy did not appear to be armed, the witness said.

Williams then rested his case.

Moldof will present Forbes’ defense starting on Tuesday. Carbocci, the surviving victim, is one of the witnesses he intends to call, Moldof said.

Tephford