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Drugs and childhood trauma top James Colley's death penalty defense

On Tuesday, jurors heard emotional testimony from Colley's sister, Crystal Colley-Wright. Crystal, who also testified during the guilt phase, said her brother loved and cared for his children. She described family events shown in several family photos.

Testimony continued Tuesday in the penalty phase for a St. Johns County man convicted of murdering his estranged wife and her best friend.

Last Wednesday, jurors found James Colley, Jr. guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. State prosecutors said his wife Amanda Cloaninger Colley begged for her life as he shot her and her friend to death.

The same panel of jurors is charged with deciding James Colley's punishment--life in prison without parole or lethal injection.

Colley's defense team presented experts to jurors from the fields of psychiatry and neurology on Monday. The defense expert Dr. Mark Mills testified the combination of drugs in Colley's system caused the defendant to be in a "parasomniac" state, commonly referred to as sleepwalking, during the time of the murders.

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According to the experts' testimony, Colley had been prescribed Hydrocodone and Cymbalta in August of 2015. On the night before the murders, August 26, 2015, he told the experts he had been bar-hopping with friends and drinking alcohol. Later, the defense experts said he ingested a 'line of cocaine' and around 5 a.m. took sleep aid drug, Ambien.

On Tuesday, jurors heard emotional testimony from Colley's sister, Crystal Colley-Wright. Crystal, who also testified during the guilt phase, said her brother loved and cared for his children. She described family events shown in several family photos.

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Crystal also recounted a childhood story involving their mother hitting their father with a bat after learning about an affair. She said Colley also witnessed their mother grabbing a knife when their father would not let her in the house. Colley was 9 years old at the time.

State's Rebuttal

Assistant state attorneys addressed the "Ambien defense" by calling their own psychiatric expert Tuesday who told jurors too much time had passed for Colley to still be suffering from an altered state of mind from the medication.

The state's expert said Colley's ability to go to work and go to a court hearing after taking the early morning Ambien pill made it unlikely he was sleepwalking at 10:38 a.m. that day when he killed his wife and her friend Lindy Dobbins.

Past claims of violence barred in James Colley trial penalty phase

Evidence from state prosecutors about prior instances of violence were not permitted during the penalty phase.

Irrelevant prior bad acts are typically not admissible as evidence at trial.

Prosecutors told the trial judge, Howard Maltz, they had witness accounts of Colley using violence or threats of violence against others in the past.

One of the witnesses referenced by prosecutors in court spoke to First Coast News about an alleged incident between the witness and Colley in 2002. The witness said Colley made threats with a firearm and attempted to barge into the witness' home to settle a dispute over a woman. No police report was filed, according to the witness who asked not to be identified.

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In Florida, jurors must vote unanimously on capital punishment for a death sentence to apply; otherwise, the defendant will receive life in prison without parole.

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