The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A jury deliberated 90 minutes before recommending a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a man convicted of killing a police officer responding to a home-invasion robbery.
The jury rejected the death penalty for Coy J. Evans in the slaying of Tallahassee police Sgt. Dale Green, who was shot when had arrived to help two women being robbed at their duplex in November 2002.
Circuit Judge Tom Bateman must give the jury’s recommendation “great weight and deference” under state law at sentencing Oct. 4.
State Attorney Willie Meggs said he was disappointed, “but that’s our system, and we have to accept the jury’s decision.”
Evans’ lead attorney, Assistant Public Defender Ines Suber, declined comment.
Relatives pleaded for Evans’ life Friday, and experts explained his struggle with cocaine addiction and learning disabilities.
The defense played tape recordings of phone calls Evans made from jail to his sons, ages 11 and 13, asking them about their school work and telling the older boy he could like girls but he was too young for sex.
Evans was convicted Wednesday of murder, burglary, armed kidnapping, armed robbery, and fleeing and eluding law enforcement in the shooting death of the 13-year veteran Nov. 13, 2002.
Evidence showed every bullet in Evans’ six-shot .357-caliber revolver was fired in about two seconds. One bullet grazed Green’s uniform sleeve, and the other five struck his body, including a fatal shot to the back of the head.
“I’m sorry,” Evans told Green’s widow after the jury left the courtroom. “I feel grief every day.”
Deb Green did not respond.