PANAMA CITY — Several people who knew Philip Brock have testified that they never knew him to be a gun enthusiast or coin collector, but when investigators searched his mobile home they found more than 10 guns and thousands of dollars worth of silver and gold coins that belonged to Terry Brazil.
Investigators also found a concealed weapons permit at Brock’s home in Fountain that belonged to Brazil, and Brazil’s Cadillac was parked outside, according to testimony the jury heard during the second day of Brock’s trial on a count of the first-degree murder of Brazil.
Brock has pleaded not guilty. If he’s convicted he faces life in prison.
Brock told investigators he was watching the car for Brazil while he was out of town. Despite his cooperation during the investigation, Brock gave inconsistent statements, said Cpl. Marc Bailey, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office case agent for the investigation.
Brock first said he didn’t know where Brazil had gone, but he later said he had gone to Michigan to sell guns with a man called Tony Owens. Brock’s description of Owens also varied, Bailey said.
Investigators looked into several people named Tony, and even got a DNA sample from another Tony Owens, but never found anyone relevant.
On Wednesday, jurors heard testimony that connected Brock through DNA to a bed post and a roll of duct tape similar to the kind around Brazil’s wrists when his body was found in late December last year.
Dr. Michael Hunter, medical examiner for the 14th Judicial Circuit, was able to look at the bedpost, and he testified Thursday that it could’ve caused Brazil’s head wounds. Brock was beaten, shot once in the abdomen, cut and stabbed.
Prosecutor Larry Basford had not rested when the jury was dismissed for the evening Wednesday, and the trial will not continue Thursday because of scheduling conflicts, so Judge Brantley Clark asked jurors to return Friday morning.