Here’s What Happened At Dylan Deschaine’s Stand Your Ground Motion Hearing:

Deschaine Takes the Stand

Sound bounces off the walls and even whispers echo a bit despite the cheap, thin carpeting in courtroom 3A of the Fort Walton Beach Courthouse.

I only notice the noise as more people enter. The first seven or so people in the viewing benches sit in their pews like stone. The group represents the bulk of Mike Ledford’s family and friends who will attend the hearing.

Near the front of the room, two attornies speak. Michael Weinstock for defendant Dylan Deschaine and Michelle Sandler for State Attorney Ginger Madden and the State of Florida.

The Judge enters as the bailiff cries, ‘All rise!’. The 25 of us gathered in 3A snap to attention with varying levels of smartness. It’s not Judge Lacey Powell-Clark who’s had this case on her docket for several months. Instead, it’s a judge typically assigned to Crestview, The Honorable David Oberliessen. Powell-Clark has been assigned to review a death warrant in a case from 1998 and will be out for the next month or so, Oberliessen reveals. In the meantime, he’ll preside.

The court clears a few quick items on the docket. One man pleads quickly to possession of marijuana and violation of parole. His attorney, Ricky Dayaram, got him just two weeks in jail on felony charges.

Another woman walks through a door in shackles and faces the Judge. She pleads to DUI Manslaughter for a reduced sentence. A woman in a wheelchair, comforted by her partner, weeps silently as the verdict is announced. A deputy grabs a fresh box of tissues.

Finally, after the preliminary cases are accounted for – Deschaine’s attorney and the state attorney speak briefly. They disagree about how to proceed because they ask to approach the bench. After about 20 minutes of discussion with Judge Oberliessen, they head back to their corners to begin.

Deschaine is escorted back into the courtroom.

Six law enforcement officers from the Niceville Police Department and The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office fill in a pew about three rows behind Deschaine and his attorney.

All the while, the two attorneys disagree about who has to prove what to either allow or disallow a stand-your-ground defense in this case. In a rare move, Weinstock calls Deschaine to the witness stand to testify.

All other witnesses, except Mike Ledford’s wife Loren, were told not to speak to one another and to leave the courtroom while Deschaine testified. Assistant State Attorney (ASA) Sandler argued that Loren Ledford had the right to be here for the testimony as an injured party in the case. The Judge and Weinstock agreed.

RELATED: Post 20 Opens In Niceville As Team Recovers From Tragedy.

Deschaine explained to the court he was in Paradise Liquors the night of the incident paying for two shots of 99 Pickles alcohol when Mike got in line behind him.

Deschaine claimed Ledford, who could be seen but not heard in security video, used vulgar language to tell him to hurry up. Deschaine replied to him vulgarly and the pair continued to exchange words as Deschaine started to leave the store.

The jawing continued until Deschaine said, and video corroborates, Ledford attacked him at the doorway to the store and their physical fight spilled out onto the sidewalk outside of the store.

Deschaine then claims Ledford punched him in the face “really hard.” Afterwards, Deschaine said Ledford lost his balance and fell out onto the sidewalk. The 25-year-old then said he called Ledford an explicit term for female genitalia.

Security video from Paradise Liquors then shows Ledford returning to the store to pay for his alcohol before leaving again.

When he left, security video with sound from outside the Bealls Outlet store, which is also in Oak Creek Shopping Plaza, shows Deschaine walk across the parking lot to the east of the CVS pharmacy. In the video, you can hear Deschaine’s voice shouting a racial slur.

Deschaine claims that after he shouted at Ledford, he tried to walk away. A second video, which you can see from this video we created, which cuts together video evidence, shows a distant view of what happened next. “Ledford spun his truck around and drove toward me and hopped out,” Deschaine said in response to Wienstocks’ questions. He parked it in front of me. He got out and had something in his waistband.”

Deschaine then told the court he began to fear for his life and pulled out his fishing knife. He claims Ledford said he would rape him – to which Deschaine claims he pleaded with Ledford to back off. “I tried to tell him I have a three-year-old,” he told the court.

Deschaine then said Ledford turned around to go to the truck. Deschaine says that’s when he sat down on the curb. Suddenly, he says, Ledford had turned around again and throttled him by the neck. Deschaine claims that while Ledford had him by the neck, Deschaine saw a gun in Ledford’s waistband. Ledford, according to Deschaine, spun him several times by his backpack before the backpack came off. It was at some point during that altercation that Deschaine told the court he believed his fishing knife entered Ledford’s body.

Deschaine did not say on the stand that he stabbed or cut Ledford at any time, but described the wounding of Deschaine as a passive happening.

After he was separated from his backpack in his narrative – Deschiane then told the court Ledford mocked him because he had taken his backpack. Deschaine says that’s when he noticed blood pouring from Ledford’s body. He decided to make a run for it, according to his testimony.

Throughout his time on the stand, Deschaine made a note to emphasize how afraid he was for his life.

Before the end of the day, at 6 PM, Deschaine would retake the stand and make the same elaborations.

A Witness to the Whole Thing

We also heard from the prosecutions key witness in the case to convict Deschaine of second degree murder.

Jonathan Demastry was the manager of the Niceville Paradise Liquors when the killing took place, but testified he hasn’t worked since then. Demastry, in his 50s, sparred with Deschaine’s attorney, Weinstock, during his contentious time on the stand. Judge Oberliessen had to repeatedly intervene between the pair and play referee.

Demastry testified that he saw the whole encounter and claims Deschaine was the one who initiated the final deadly assault by jumping on Ledford’s back as Ledford walked back to his truck in the parking lot near the CVS.

Weinstock then attempted to impeach Demastry’s testimony. He asked him about Deschaine’s purchase of liquor immediately before Ledford’s death. On the stand, Demastry told the court he had sold liquor to Deschaine moments before the event.

Weinstock pounced. He pulled up video that appeared to show somone else serving Deschaine and Ledford and noted to Demastry that it wasn’t him at the counter. From there, Weinstock argued that Demastry’s memory may not be trustworthy.

ASA Sandler had just two questions for Demastry:

“Did you see an altercation?” Sandler asked.

“Yes,” Demastry replied.

“Did you see him [Deschaine] jump on the victim’s back from behind?” she followed up?

“Yes,” Demastry said again.

Autopsy

The State Attorney’s Office called the District One Medical Examiner employee who performed the autopsy on Ledford to the stand. Dr. Michael Pagacz told the court he ruled the cause of death as blood loss and the manner of death as a homicide. He said the ‘cutting wounds’ (which are wounds longer than they are deep) on his right arm (which severed the artery) and back of his head (which chipped his skull) ended up killing him. The doctor didn’t say how long it would take Ledford to bleed out from his wounds and whether or not he would have the ability to attack or harm anyone else after he was cut.

The medical examiner noted that the wound on Ledford’s right arm was the most significant injury, but he also had secondary wounds on his arm and on the back of his head.

Weinstock asked Pagacz several questions about defensive wounds, or the lack thereof on Ledford’s body as well as Ledford’s mental state due to the presence of prescription dextroamphetamine in his system and a blood alcohol level of .087. The legal driving limit in Florida is a blood alcohol limit of .08.

Pagacz said he could not speak to the possible alteration of Ledford’s mental state due to drugs or alcohol as he is a forensic pathologist by training and not a toxicologist. He also explained to the court that the lack of defensive wounds was not indicative of who started the fight or why.

The Cellmate Leads Investigators to a Potential Murder Weapon

A fellow inmate at the jail revealed to the court how Niceville Police was able to find one of the knives the prosecutors believe was used to kill Mike Ledford.

Inmate Kendall Schumacher testified that Deschaine told him about the incident that led to Mike Ledford’s death – as well as where to find the murder weapon. In addition to telling the court that Deschaine bragged about the killing, Schumacher said Deschaine threatened to kill Shucmacher if he took the stand against Deschaine.

Investigators with the Niceville Police Department followed up on a tip from Schumacher about the location of a knife used in the killing. Detective Sergeant Horace Paine said the police had been in pursuit of a potential murder weapon in the days following Ledford’s death – and claimed Deschaine told the police they would never find the knife.

About a month after Ledford’s death, Paine said Schumacher reached out to Niceville Police to let them know he had heard Deschaine brag about where he had hidden the knife and that the police wouldn’t be able to find it. He told officers the knife was in a wooded area between the Sunbelt Tool Rental yard and the new subdivision on Abner Way in Niceville. Detectives found the knife with a metal detector under an empty 99 pickles bottle and a Lakers hat, which they say belong to Deschaine.

South Adams PD Body Camera

One non-local law enforcement officer graced the stand during the hearing. South Adams, Massachusetts Detective Sergeant Josh Zustra appeared on the stand to answer questions in the hearing related to a phone conversation with Dylan Deschaine and his mother, South Adams resident Jennifer Johnson.

Zustra testified that he arrived to Johnson’s home shortly after midnight on the night fo the incindet, as a favor to then-Niceville Police Chief David Popwell – who retired just a week after Deschaine’s arrest.

Zustra turned on his body camera to record the call between Johnson and Deschaine. For the majority of the call, which the body camera recorded for about nine minutes, Johnson urges Deschaine to turn himself in to Popwell. He argues with her that law enforcement are bad – and that he did nothing wrong. She agrees with him that he acted in self defense, but continues to insist Deschaine turn himself in.

During the playing of the recording, Deschaine looked down nearly the entire time. In part of the recording, he tells his mother that “he will poke her like he poked [Ledford].” Deschaine adds that he believes the difference between himself and his mother is that she is a “victim” and he is a “suspect” in the sense that she allows things to happen to her and he takes aciton.  

Closing Arguments

After a day of testimony, both Weinstock and Sandler got a final chance to impress the Judge with their arguments.

Assistant State Attorney Michelle Sandler argued that the case doesn’t have the standing to stand your ground. She cited the four-prong test Florida Courts require a situation to meet for a stand-your-ground case to have merit:

1. Someone uses force
2. They needed to use force to protect themselves or someone else from imminent harm
3. A defendant used force to resist murder or a felony
4. The person claiming stand-your-ground was not involved in a crime.

Sandler said Deschaine was in violation of prong four at the beginning of the hearing – because he caused public disorder by calling Ledford a ‘pussy’. Sandler argued Deschaine’s decision to yell that word at Ledford, along with a racial slur for African-Americans, constituted what’s known in legalese as ‘fighting words.’ Fighting words, in short, are words said to another person that are so insulting that they incite other people to immediate violence and don’t have protection under the First Amendment.

The judge ultimately rejected the argument earlier in the hearing after taking a recess to read the seven or so cases that both attornies put in front of him – saying that while the words were offensive, they were not enough to excuse Ledford from attacking Deschaine – if that is indeed what happened.

Sandler said, as she did in her opening argument, Deschaine confronted Ledford inside and outside of Paradise Liquors on that February evening. She reminded the Judge of the conversation South Adams Detective Sergeant Josh Zustra caught on body camera between Deschaine and his mother. She argued that Deschaine threatened to stab his mother like he did to Ledford – and it proved his mindset.

She also reminded the Judge that Deschaine did not mention a gun or feeling like his life was threatened once to law enforcement after his arrest – despite profuse verbal diarrhea caputred on body camera and in the memories of the officers and deputies.

“you don’t get to pick a fight and then claim self defense,” Sandler said to Judge Oberliessen about the case.  

After Sandler finished, Weinstock got up to counter. He focused on what he saw as the unreliable testimony of the Paradise Liquors store manager and the toxicology report on Ledford to make his case.

He argued that the discrepencies in Jonathan Demastry’s testimony, combined with the toxicology report which highlighted what he reasoned were an unstable mix of depressants and stimulants in Ledford’s body as well Ledford’s decision to drive his truck over to Deschaine combined in an unfortunate situation in which Deschaine was compelled to defend his life.

With her final rejoinder, Sandler told the court, “Just because you say something does not make it true.” She ended the day by accusing Deschaine of fabricating his testimony to infer self-defense to cover up what she said was a brutal attack.

Mid Bay News South Walton Correspondent Steven Saul contributed to this article.