Shooter’s trial starts Monday

PANAMA CITY — After spending more than a year in either the Bay County Jail or a state mental hospital, Joseph Moody will be in court Monday to help his attorneys select the men and women who will decide where he spends the rest of his life.

If those men and women side with prosecutors and find Moody acted with premeditation when he gunned down 24-year-old Megan Pettis, his ex-girlfriend, in broad daylight before a dozen or more witnesses, Moody will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Moody, a former Panama City firefighter with a lengthy history of mental health treatment, was tackled and beaten by bystanders moments after he unloaded a .45-caliber pistol in a 23rd Street shopping center parking lot.

Police found a suicide note he’d written the night before when they searched his house, and he told investigators that when Pettis rebuffed his attempt to talk to her by driving away from him he thought, “Well, (expletive) it,” and shot her.

Moody’s trial for first-degree murder will hinge on the question of premeditation, but the only way for him to present evidence he hadn’t intended to kill Pettis will be for him to waive his right not to self-incriminate and testify.

Earlier this month, Judge Michael Overstreet prohibited Moody’s attorneys from presenting evidence of Moody’s “diminished mental capacity.”

Jean Marie Downing and Rusty Shepard had hoped Overstreet would allow two psychologists who examined Moody to testify they don’t believe Moody had the mental capacity to form premeditation on the day Pettis was shot.

Overstreet agreed with prosecutor Bob Sombathy’s argument that Florida law prohibits a defense that relies on diminished mental capacity short of insanity. An insanity defense must meet certain legal definitions, and Moody’s mental state doesn’t fit within those definitions.

Overstreet deemed Moody mentally incompetent to aid in his defense in August. Moody’s competency was restored at the state hospital and Overstreet declared him competent in February.