The attorneys for a man who was found guilty in a 2015 double-murder case in St. Augustine were back in court on Tuesday hoping to convince the judge to give him a life sentence over the death penalty.
In July, James Colley Jr. was found guilty on all counts, including two counts of 1st-degree premeditated murder of Amanda Colley and Lindy Dobbins.
The sentence comes after the defense team spent two days asking jurors to consider the prescription and illicit drugs in Colley's system, the domestic violence he witnessed as a child, and his caring family values.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Garry Wood asked the jurors have mercy on the 38-year-old defendant.
Defense attorney reminds jurors in #ColleyTrial - "Life without the possibility of parole is a lawful sentence which you are allowed to impose." "We're not talking about how he will live, we're really talking about under what circumstances he will die." #JamesColleyTrial @FCN2go pic.twitter.com/qkq5Wnnl33
"This is a human being we're talking about," Wood said. "According to the state's own testimony, Mr. Colley was upset, he was enraged. He's an impulsive person, but that doesn't aggravate this into a case where the death penalty is warranted."
Assistant prosecutor Mark Johnson replayed a frantic 911 call made by Amanda Colley during the shootingsand detailed the gunshot wounds during the state's closing arguments. Johnson told jurors the murders deserved a punishment of death because of aggravating factors that made the crime "atrocious and heinous."
Prosecutor shows morgue shots of Amanda Colley's body and tells jury she was shot 9xs by #JamesColley "The fatal shot was to her spinal cord one of the last. All the other gunshot wounds were not immediately lethal. She was alive and trying to fight back." @FCN2go #ColleyTrial
"Please stop. Please put it down." Frantic 911 call is played by prosecutor during #ClosingArguments. State says this shows the murders were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. #ColleyTrial #JamesColleyTrial @FCN2go pic.twitter.com/bkuAJxRn0A
"There was no justification for what happened," Johnson said. "The choices he made [were] for his own selfish desires because he couldn’t let go, because he was losing control and this was the only way he could regain control."