What the State is Using to Argue Death Penalty for the Julio Foolio 4 -Aggravating Factors Explained

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Members of the jury, last week all of you unanimous unanim unanimously found all four defendants guilty beyond all reasonable doubt of first premeditated murder. We are now in penalty phase and the state of Florida is asking each of you to recommend the most severe sentence that our state allows and that is the death penalty for each of the defendants in this case based on the aggravating factors that exist.

[00:00:43]You have heard that not all murderers qualify as firstdegree murder under our law. And as you were instructed last week in the jury instructions that not all murders are first-degree murders. You've heard about seconddegree murder and manslaughter, both of which do not warrant and cannot be punished by the death penalty.

[00:01:12]And now you have heard, as the judge has instructed you this morning, that not all firstdegree murders warrant the death penalty. The law in the state of Florida requires that only firstdegree murders where aggravation has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt can warrant the death penalty.

[00:01:36]And the law requires at least one one aggravating factor to justify and warrant the death penalty.

[00:01:48]In this case, you have heard that all of the defendants in this case have more than one. Rashad Murphy has four aggravating factors.

[00:02:01]DaVon Murphy has four aggravating factors.

[00:02:05]Sean Gathright has two aggravating factors and Isaiah Chance has two I'm sorry Shan Gathight has three aggravating factors and Isaiah Chance has two aggravating factors.

[00:02:22]All of the defendants meet the requirements that warrant the aggravation which is required that warrant the most severe sentence in the state of Florida.

[00:02:37]Last week, it was the state of Florida's burden to prove the elements of the facts of the case, the elements of firstdegree murder, and all of the other charges beyond and to the exclusion of any reasonable doubt.

[00:02:53]This phase of the trial, we will prove the aggravation beyond all reasonable doubt.

[00:03:06]All of these aggravating factors have already been proven beyond a reasonable doubt by the evidence that you have already heard in the guilt phase. One of the aggravating factors not only has been proven by the evidence, but it is inherent in your verdict and already found by all of you to have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm going to go through each of these aggravating factors that apply to each of the defendants. Starting with Rashad Murphy, that first aggravating factor, the defendant was contemporaneously convicted of another felony involving the threat of violence or the use of violence against another person. when you found Rashad Murphy guilty of three counts of attempted secondderee murder for the attempted murder of Gino Norris and Xavier Edwards and Kama Bentley in your verdict you found and convicted him of another violent crime against another victim in this case that it that is one of his aggravating factors That is what aggravates this crime beyond a first-degree homicide.

[00:04:30]Three additional victims of violent crime. Those count as one aggravating factor against Rashad Murphy.

[00:04:41]And it is inherently decided by all of you when you found and convicted him of those three counts of attempted seconddegree murder.

[00:04:55]The defendant knowingly created a gris great risk of death to many persons again based on the facts and the evidence that has already been presented to you and proven to you in the guilt phase. Rashad Murphy. There is no doubt that he was one of the shooters and the facts in this case shows that he created a great risk of death to many people.

[00:05:23]Again, your convictions for the three counts of attempted murder, seconddegree murder of those three other victims show that they were other victims that were in danger of losing their lives. You have them firing. You have him firing into a vehicle of the victim in this case where there were two other people in his car with him who did get shot.

[00:05:55]You also have a vehicle behind him. His girlfriend, Charles Jones, she was parked behind him with two other passengers in her car.

[00:06:09]There were also explo exposed to death.

[00:06:14]He created a risk of death to many people.

[00:06:18]And let's not forget Kama Bentley who was in a car that was next to the victim, Charles Jones, when he was killed. Her car was fired upon and she also was shot during the course of them trying to kill Charles Jones.

[00:06:39]But the risk to many people goes beyond all three of those additional victims that were shot and killed in this case.

[00:06:49]They fired on that victim in a hotel parking lot that was filled with guests, filled with cars. They knowingly decided to kill Charles Jones at that location, creating a risk of death to many people beyond the one that they killed, the three others that they shot, but to the guests and the employees of that hotel.

[00:07:22]And you heard directly from two other victims in this case, Audra Agamante, who was in one of those hotel rooms where she was moving in her daughter to the University of South Florida where her and her husband and her daughter's boyfriend all had to go down to the ground because bullets flew into their hotel room.

[00:07:48]You heard from Pablo Gabbor how him and his family were in their hotel room and how bullets came into his hotel room.

[00:08:00]It is beyond all reasonable doubt that we have proven this aggravating factor as well against Rashad Murphy and against all of the shooters in this case. The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons.

[00:08:19]The third aggravator, Rashad Murphy. Cold, calculated, and premeditated.

[00:08:26]Cold means that the murder was the product of calm and cool reflection.

[00:08:33]Calculated, having a careful plan or pre-arranged design.

[00:08:39]The period of time for premeditation must be long enough to allow for reflection.

[00:08:45]For this aggravating circumstance, the premeditation must be heightened.

[00:08:53]There is a substantial period of reflection that is required for this aggravator.

[00:09:01]And again, you have heard the facts of this case that show how cold and calculated this plan was to kill the victim in this case.

[00:09:15]And the final aggravating circumstance that has been proven against Rashad Murphy is that the capital felony was committed by a criminal gang member.

[00:09:29]You have already made a finding beyond all reasonable doubt that the defendant was a gang member or associate in a criminal gang and that the defendant committed the crime for the purpose of benefiting, promoting or furthering the interest of that criminal gang. How the aggravating factor is different from the enhancement that you made during the guilt phase of this trial is that the enhancement allows for either a criminal gang member or a criminal associate.

[00:10:08]The aggravator only applies if the defendant is a criminal gang member. And again, the facts in this case proven beyond all reasonable doubt is that Rashad Murphy was indeed a criminal gang member.

[00:10:30]And the distinction between a member and an associate is the number of criteria that they meet. An associate only has to have one. A criminal gang member has to have two criteria, meet the criteria for the criminal gang statute to be recognized under the law as a criminal gang member. And for Rashad Murphy, there were three different criteria that he fell under. He definitely was proven to be a criminal gang member pursuant to the criminal gang statute.

[00:11:15]Dave Murphy.

[00:11:18]Dave Murphy has all of the same aggravators that we have just gone through and went over for Rashad Murphy. that he was contemporaneously convicted of another felony involving the use of violence to another person. And again, you have already convicted him beyond and to the exclusion of all reasonable doubt of three counts of attempted seconddegree murder. The defendant, who was a shooter in this case, knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons, cold, calculated, and premeditated.

[00:11:57]and that he was a criminal gang member when he committed this capital felony.

[00:12:06]And again, he had three met three of the criteria of being a criminal gang member. There is no reasonable doubt that he was a criminal gang member and that he committed these crimes to benefit the interests of a criminal gang.

[00:12:27]Sean Gathright. There are three aggravating factors. That he was convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to another person.

[00:12:37]Again, he was a shooter in this case.

[00:12:41]And he was convicted of three counts of attempted secondderee murder. The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons.

[00:12:52]Again, as a shooter, he exposed not just the victim to death, but all three of those other victims who were shot and could have died, as well as all of the other individuals in the victim's party that were in those vehicles and in the line of gunfire.

[00:13:13]And those victims that were in the hotels that also were in the line of gunfire.

[00:13:21]The last defendant, Isaiah Chance, also has the aggravating factor of cold, calculated, and premeditated, and that the capital felony was committed by a criminal gang member.

[00:13:37]Again, he had four different criteria that he met to prove that he was a criminal gang member.

[00:13:48]We anticipate and expect that you will hear from each of the defendants and that they will present to you evidence of mitigation.

[00:13:59]And just as Judge Cisco has instructed you this morning, you will independently look at each of the defendants separately and evaluate the aggravation and the mitigation individually for each defendant and then make a decision as to what the appropriate sentence will be.

[00:14:28]Again, you will be instructed that the law neither compels you or requires you to rem recommend a death sentence.

[00:14:36]However, the law does require that you as a juror determine the weight of the aggravators and the mitigation for each defendant.

[00:14:47]In this case, you decide how much weight to give the aggravators in this case.

[00:14:55]You decide how much weight you are going to give the mitigation that each defendant presents to you.

[00:15:05]And they have to prove their mitigation by the greater weight of the evidence.

[00:15:11]And each of you will decide whether or not they have met that burden and how much mitigation you are going to how much weight you are going to give their mitigation.

[00:15:25]And again, this is not a mathematical equation. It is about the quality of evidence. The law requires a death sentence is only warranted and a firstdegree murder case where there is at least one aggravating factor that has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

[00:15:46]There is no more difficult decision as a juror in a criminal case than a juror will ever have to make than to determine whether or not a death sentence is warranted.

[00:16:05]But in this case, as to each defendant, there is more than one aggravating circumstance that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt.

[00:16:19]And all of the defendants, all of them have the aggravating factor of cold calculated and premeditation.

[00:16:32]This is a firstdegree premeditated murder that is heightened.

[00:16:38]This is a senseless killing. I submit to you the facts that you heard during the guilt phase show how the victim was executed with cold calculated precision.

[00:16:54]This was heightened premeditation beyond what is required for premeditation.

[00:17:03]The evidence showed and proved that there was a significant time of reflection, thinking about how to commit firstderee premeditation.

[00:17:15]They thought about it and the evidence shows how much they planned all of the details. How they carefully planned all of the details.

[00:17:29]They made travel arrangements.

[00:17:32]They acquired weapons in advance. They required acquired ammunition in advance.

[00:17:40]They planned and decided how they would look and what they would wear so that they could get away with murder.

[00:17:51]They acquired mask, dark clothing.

[00:17:56]They discussed how they would communicate with one another, who would not be using their devices, carefully planning how and where and who would do what.

[00:18:16]Those are strong evidence beyond all reasonable doubt of how aggravating this homicide is and what separates it from any other firstderee homicide.

[00:18:34]And after you have weighed all of the aggravation and the mitigation, we will ask you individually to recommend the death penalty against each and every one of the defendants in this case.

[00:18:57]>> Mr. Hernandez, do you make no statement at this time?

[00:19:02]>> Yes. council.

[00:19:07]Um, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I I want to begin by thanking you for your >> All right, before we get lost in that, uh, just real quick here, guys, aggravating factors are specific circumstances that the state is arguing that the government will argue that justify a heightened penalty. In this case, they're seeking the death penalty.

[00:19:31]So, they need to make the justifications for it. Specifically what they're choosing to argue here, and pardon if this is awkward. I like typed it up and punched it into AI to make a slide so you guys could see it on screen. But in case that was hard to follow, Rashad Murphy and DaVon Murphy are facing all four of the aggravating factors that the states arguing. So, for one, you've got this contemporaneous, which means at the same time that they are convicted of this first-degree murder, this capital offense, they're also convicted contemporaneously of other violent convictions. These are the secondderee attempted murder convictions. So, we have that on the table for Rashad Murphy, DaVon Murphy, and Shawn Gather because they're the ones that were charged with shooting the three other victims. The next aggravating factor we have is that it's got to be a cold calculated even after a heightened cooling off period. You've got the premeditated capital homicide. So we've got that here for let's see 1 2 3 4.

[00:20:30]That's the one that all four have for criminal gang membership. Um we did not have Sean Gathright charged. He wasn't included in the gang enhancement as part of the indictment.

[00:20:42]So that's why we don't see that one for his. Uh, and then additional for Isaiah Chance, he didn't shoot into any cars even though the other three did. So, he doesn't have that fourth factor.