Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Lawyers seek mercy for three convicted in deputy’s murder
Defense lawyers didn’t present a united front last year when three men went on trial for the 2006 murder of Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Tephford.
But now that the men have been found guilty, their lawyers have mobilized around variations of a single plea: Spare the life of Eloyn Ingraham. Spare the life of Bernard Forbes. Spare the life of Andre Delancy.
The three are facing the death penalty, with Broward State Attorney Mike Satz reminding the jury on June 6 that Tephford was ambushed and never had a chance to survive the ambush of Nov. 11, 2006.
Throughout the month of June, defense lawyers stood up one by one to offer evidence they say should lead jurors to show mercy for their clients. Gone is the presumption of innocence. During the penalty phase of a capital murder trial, the defendants have already been found guilty.
Until recently, prosecutors could secure the death penalty by first convincing a majority of jurors, then a judge, that execution was an appropriate punishment.
That changed with the most recent death penalty law, passed in 2017. Now the jury’s vote for execution must be unanimous. Defense lawyers can block capital punishment by convincing just one juror to vote for life in prison instead.
By looking into their past, however, their lawyers seek to justify a life sentence.
“You will see Eloyn Ingraham as more than the worst thing he has ever done,” said his lawyer, Samuel Halpern. “You will see him as a life worth saving.”
Several years ago, Ingraham was sweeping the floors at the Broward jail when he noticed another inmate attempting to hang himself in his cell. Ingraham raced to a detention deputy to get help. The inmate’s life was saved.
The deputy testified about the incident in court.
“He did a terrible thing in 2006, but his is a life that should be spared,” Halpern said.
In 2006, Ingraham was a passenger in the car that Tephford pulled over at the Versailles Gardens complex in Tamarac. Prosecutors said Ingraham was worried about being identified by the deputy, so he called Forbes and Delancy to the scene. The men arrived and opened fire, killing Tephford and wounding Deputy Corey Carbocci, according to trial testimony.
Five years before that night, Forbes was the one who was left for dead after a brutal attack, said his lawyer, Edward Salantrie. Forbes was impoverished as a child, a residual victim of his mother’s depression. He watched her get physically abused.
At age 17, he was attacked by multiple assailants, Salantrie said. They kicked him, beat him and stabbed him. He still bears the scars today. Forbes has post traumatic stress disorder, a mental health expert testified.
Delancy’s lawyer, Mitch Polay, told the jury he wasn’t sure why his client was convicted. He didn’t deny Delancy’s involvement in Tephford’s murder, but he asked the jury to consider whether they convicted him as a principal — a willing participant in a crime ultimately committed by someone else — or as the killer who fired the fatal shot.
The distinction bears little consequence when it comes to establishing guilt, but it might come into play in determining whether Delancy deserves to die, Polay said.
“There are degrees of culpability,” he said. “Since we don’t know if he’s the killer, and I don’t think he is, I don’t believe he should be sentenced to death.”
The trial will pick up again in mid-July, with prosecutors given one final chance to offer testimony to rebut the presentations offered by the defense in June.
From there, closing arguments will take place, and the jury will be asked to make its recommendation.
The process continues only if the jury decides in favor of execution. Broward Circuit Judge Paul Backman cannot override a recommendation of life in prison, but he can block the death penalty even if the jury concludes it’s an appropriate punishment.