MACCLENNY, Fla. — (Note: The video above is from May 2019.)
The son of a retired Baker County Sheriff's Office deputy will spend one year in jail and four years on probation after pleading guilty to tampering with evidence in connection to the deadly shooting of a Jacksonville man.
On Feb. 3, 2018, 33-year-old Dominic "D.J." Broadus II was found shot and killed in Macclenny near a home on Southern States Nursery Road. FDLE took over the police investigation the same day, due to the suspected involvement of Gardner Fraser, who is not only related to a retired deputy but was previously a contract employee for the Baker County Jail, according to an order filed by then-Gov. Rick Scott.
First Coast News first began investigating the details of Broadus' case after the mysterious death yielded few details for the family and no arrests. A heavily redacted police report in the case provided no cause of death or suspect information but described the deputy's son as being escorted from the scene by police.
Broadus' death sparked community rallies demanding accountability in March and April of 2018. His father, Dominic Broadus, Sr., told First Coast News in 2018 the silence from investigators was frustrating for their family.
"I don't even know exactly how my son died, that's a shame," Broadus, Sr. said in 2018. "They said they didn't find any weapons on my son, we asked [agents] that question."
Scott's office reassigned the case away from State Attorney William Cervone's office which typically handles Baker County cases, in order for Cervone to "avoid a conflict of interest or any appearance of impropriety."
Fraser entered a plea of no contest to one count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony. He was sentenced to one year in county jail and four years of probation, with a mental evaluation when he is released from jail.