The verdict's in: Jurors agree on sentence for Nassau deputy killer

It’s taken six days of jury selection, eight days of sentencing hearings testimony and 913 days of grieving for slain Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers to come to a conclusion: Patrick McDowell should be executed for taking the 29-year-old’s life, jury’s recommended Thursday.

The 37-year-old Jacksonville man pleaded guilty to killing Moyers during a September 2021 traffic stop in which he and his female passenger had been doing drugs in a stolen minivan while he was already on probation. Jurors were tasked with deciding whether he should receive the death penalty or a life in prison sentence and needed at least an 8-4 majority as opposed to unanimous. They voted 11-1 in favor of death.

McDowell showed little emotion while the verdict was read. Moyers' family shed some tears and hugged each other and prosecutors.

Much of the testimony the last two weeks focused on the same theme of McDowell changing dramatically for the worse after returning from two deployments to Iraq both as a decorated U.S. Marine and a military security contractor suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and getting addicted to drugs.

In about an hour testifying himself, McDowell expressed deep regret for his actions that night and apologized to the Moyers, law enforcement and the Nassau County community for his “selflessness” and “cowardly” execution of a man “better than me.”

McDowell and others even noted he grew up with a stepfather police officer, a stepbrother FBI agent and a birth father with ties the Veterans Treatment Court that McDowell had initially done well in but relapsed.

He also pledged to spend the rest of his days, no matter what the jury decided, doing “everything I can to try to make right what I’ve done.”

But then in his final return to the stand Thursday before closing arguments, he changed course and even acknowledged it was against his attorneys' wishes. He basically told the jury to punish him with death.

"I don’t want your mercy, and I definitely don’t deserve it," he said. "I can’t take away the pain I’ve caused, but I can pay for it, so make me pay for it.”

The prosecution also stressed that drugs and PTSD are no justification for so coldly shooting a law enforcement officer in the face at close range and then again to make sure he was dead.

Moyers’ fiancee, mother, father and brother also provided emotional and powerful victim impact statements about their lives caving in from all sides since his death.

Both his mother and brother said they’ll just suddenly burst out sobbing. To a person, it was clear that Moyers was all about service and integrity.

“He lived and breathed law enforcement,” fiancee Ivy Carter said.

Notably, they never said McDowell’s name or disparaged him or his family.

“We thank the jury for their time and diligent attention to this most important matter," State Attorney Melissa Nelson said afterward. "Their recommendation recognizes Josh’s service in life as well as the cold and calculated manner of his death. Josh’s family, fiancée, friends, and fellow officers have suffered immense pain from hissenseless murder. I hope today’s end of the penalty trial may begin the healing they deserve."

How many people have been executed in Florida?

Of the 278 inmates on Florida’s death row, there currently are no cases from Nassau County, according to the state Department of Corrections. Of the 301 people executed in Florida since 1924, only two have been from Nassau.

Willie Walker was 33 when he was executed for rape in 1937, and Flem Griffis was 30 when he was executed for murder in 1949, according to the department.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jurors recommend death for Nassau County deputy killer