Jury must decide life sentence or execution

When Brian Tephford took a job with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, his wife made him promise he wouldn’t make her a widow. Stefanie Tephford-Rush took the stand in a Broward courtroom on Wednesday to talk to the jury that will decide whether to execute the three men who made her husband break that promise.

Andre Delancy, Bernard Forbes and Eloyn Ingraham were convicted in March of ambushing and murdering Tephford during a traffic stop in Tamarac in 2006. The jury that found them guilty must be unanimous in recommending their execution. Otherwise, they will face a mandatory life sentence.

“Brian went into law enforcement in order to help people and serve the community,” Tephford-Rush said. She acknowledged that she and Tephford got divorced in early 2006 — “Life happens,” she said — but there was talk of reconciliation in early November of that year.

“Brian came to me at work and asked if we can get back together,” she said. “We never got to finish that conversation.”

The couple had three children.

Wednesday’s hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Paul Backman was the start of weeks of additional testimony that will be considered by the jury.

Prosecutor Mike Satz is tasked with convincing the jury there is legal justification to order the execution of the defendants — the crime showed that the murder was premeditated, carried out in a “cold and calculated” manner, Satz said. And the victim was an on-duty law enforcement officer who was set upon so suddenly he didn’t have a chance to fight back.

Another victim in the case, Deputy Corey Carbocci, survived the wounds he suffered on Nov. 11, 2006, and he talked to the jury on Wednesday about his relationship with his fallen friend.

“Brian loved to talk about his young daughter and his baby twins,” Carbocci said. “He really loved his kids… As good a deputy as Brian was, he was an even better person. I admired Brian, and I hope he admired me.”

Defense lawyers will each have one week to present “mitigating factors” to weigh against execution.

The jury is expected to begin its decision-making process in late June or early July.

Tephford