Defense team files motions to keep Nassau County deputy murderer off death row

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. – Despite a near-unanimous jury recommendation for the death penalty for Patrick McDowell, his defense team is trying new methods to keep their client off death row.

His attorneys have filed two new motions ahead of his Spencer hearing, scheduled for June.

In April, a jury voted 11-1 to send McDowell to death row for shooting and killing Nassau County Deputy Joshua Moyers.

The new motions were filed with the court this week. An application asks the judge for a new punishment phase. The other directly calls on the judge to overturn the recommended death sentence and instead sentence Patrick McDowell to life in prison.

READ | Defendant's full memorandum in support of life sentence | Defendant's Complete Motion for a New Penalty Phase Hearing

“I deserve what I gave him. He deserved better, but I didn't. Let me be clear: This is not a plea for my life or my death. This is a plea deal for Deputy Moyers and his family,” McDowell said on the witness stand during his sentencing hearing in April.

In two motions, McDowell's defense attorneys explain why they believe the mitigating factors should be enough to sway the judge.

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The first deals specifically with McDowell.

• Including his past trauma as a youth, which included the death of two childhood friends in a car accident

• His lifelong respect for law enforcement. His own stepfather was a police officer.

• It also mentions his celebrated career in the Marine Corps. At this point in his life he was considered “the best of the best.”

RELATED | After death sentence for deputy's killer, Army veteran urges other veterans to address mental health | Mentor says he blames himself for the demise of the man who killed the Nassau County deputy

It also addresses the dark side of his ministry.

• He returned from deployment to Iraq with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

• At one point it was said that he observed battle victims and children intentionally burned by their parents

• It also mentioned the suicide of a close friend and McDowell's methamphetamine addiction

The second application focused solely on the legal proceedings against him. It says the court erred by, among other things, failing to move the sentencing hearing out of Nassau County and failing to declare Florida's new death penalty standard unconstitutional.

No matter the outcome, Moyers' loved ones have vowed to see it through to the end.

“This was a simple case of good versus evil. Josh was everything that was good. The killer was everything that was bad,” Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said.

McDowell has scheduled a Spencer hearing for June 3. His attorneys will be able to present additional evidence that was not heard at his sentencing hearing.