PANAMA CITY — Defense attorneys are seeking a new trial for the Fountain man convicted of the murder and robbery of his neighbor because a juror said he was forced into a guilty verdict.
It would be the fifth trial of Philip Dean Brock if accepted by Circuit Court Judge Brantley Clark.
Brock, 58, was found guilty on all charges for the December 2012 death of 65-year-old Terry Brazil following more than seven hours of deliberation. Brazil’s throat was slashed, he was shot in the stomach and bludgeoned after apparently being bound with duct tape. Several items — including his car, guns and coins — missing from Brazil’s home were found at Brock’s home. After three hung juries, the fourth found Brock guilty early Oct. 4 of murder and robbery, which carries a life sentence.
--- READ THE MOTION AND JUROR LETTER ---
But the following Monday, juror Bobby Baker contacted Brock’s attorneys, claiming that “though he requested the foreperson [to] advise the judge they were deadlocked, as the case had not been proven to him,” the foreman refused, according to court documents.
“By our foreman’s refusal to take my request to the judge, I felt as if I would be held indefinitely, until I was forced to go along with the majority,” Baker wrote.
State prosecutor Larry Basford declined to comment on the motion for a new trial itself.
“The jury worked hard for this verdict, and we believe it was the right verdict,” Basford said. “It will ultimately be up to the judge to determine the validity of this motion.”
According to Baker’s account, nine people had decided on a guilty verdict, two were undecided and one hold-out — Baker — believed state prosecutors “had not made a case of sufficient strength to overcome every citizen’s presumptive innocence,” he said.
Several pieces of evidence linking Brock to the crime scene were missing. The gun and knife used in Brazil’s murder were never recovered. Brock’s DNA was found inside the room where Brazil’s body was found and on a bedpost investigators said was used in the bludgeoning. However, an unidentified third party’s DNA also was found at the scene.
--- READ THE MOTION AND JUROR LETTER ---
After hour six of deliberation, jurors agreed on pursuing a compromised guilty verdict for robbery. But a “conspiracy theory” developed among the jury that the additional DNA evidence came from a person committing the robbery on the part of Brock, Baker said. That is what led jurors to a unanimous decision that, though Brock may or may not have been present during the killing, he could have orchestrated it from afar for a cut of the bounty.
A poll of the jury verdict was taken by the court following their decision. Each member stated the verdict of first-degree murder was their own.
“While I must ultimately take full responsibility for my horrible decision, it would not have happened if the jury had been conducted as it should have been while we were in the jury room,” Baker wrote.