Death penalty ruling takes center stage in 2 Bradenton murder cases

BRADENTON -- Issues surrounding Florida's death penalty were argued in a Bradenton courtroom Wednesday morning in two separate high- profile murder cases.

In the first case, Circuit Judge Diana Moreland refused to accept Devin Chandler's request to change his plea to guilty in the Labor Day slayings of two brothers until issues surrounding the state's intent to seek the death penalty are resolved.

Moreland refused to accept the change of plea. She has to decide whether she will allow the state to seek the death penalty. The defense submitted a motion to toss the state's intent to seek the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Hurst vs. Florida declared Florida's death penalty scheme unconstitutional.

Citing another U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1977 case Dobbert vs Florida, Moreland said that under case law, the state is given a chance to give notice of intent.

"It goes in great detail about notice," Moreland said. "At the time that Mr. Chandler committed this crime, the death penalty was quite obvious a sentence potential in this case."

Moreland asked Assistant Public Defender Franklin Roberts and Assistant State Attorney Art Brown to submit written briefs by 5 p.m. Friday on how the Supreme Court decision should or shouldn't be applied and that she would review their briefs

before issuing a ruling.

Chandler is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.

The death penalty in Florida, which was reestablished in 1976, has been in limbo since the Jan. 12 Supreme Court decision in Hurst v. Florida that it is unconstitutional that a judge, and not a jury, makes the final decision to sentence a murderer to death.

The slayings of two brothers, Khasem Yousef, 23, and Faares Yousef, 17, was captured by the video surveillance Snappy's Mart, 559, 17th St. W., Palmetto, according to authorities.

The brothers were working about 2:30 p.m. Sept. 7, when investigators say Chandler walked into the store, picked up an item and walked to the counter.

Instead of paying, detectives say he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handgun, first killing the older brother standing next to him, and then shooting the younger brother standing behind the counter. Both brothers were shot in the head, police said.

Chandler then jumped on the counter and took cash from the register and cigarettes from a rack before jumping back over and leaving the store, police said.

Police were notified after a customer walked in and found the bodies.

Chandler was arrested at a Tampa home by U.S. marshals on Sept. 8.

A grand jury indicted him later that month indicted him.

Terez Jones also appeared in court Wednesday morning as Roberts and Brown made identical arguments regarding the intention to seek the death penalty.

Jones, 33, along with Jimmie McNear, 19, and Trey Nonnombre, 19, were indicted on two counts of first-degree murder in fatal shootings on July 9 of Esther Deneus and her boyfriend, Kantral Markeith Brooks, both 29. Just before 4 a.m. July 9, Deneus and Brooks were shot in their home in the 3900 block of Southern Parkway West in Bradenton. Police said the couple's five children, between the ages of 1 and 11, were in the home at the time of the shootings and at least one was a witness.

The current maximum punishment for murder in Florida is life, Roberts argued, citing the Hurst. Brown again asked Moreland to continue the motion until after the state legislature session ended March 11.

Moreland said she would reserve ruling in Jones case as well, asking both attorneys again to submit written briefs by 5 p.m. Friday, stating that the Dobbert ruling needed to be addressed in this case as well.

Jones' co-defendant McNear made a brief in court as well afterward regarding a Forsett hearing, to determine if a new attorney needed to be appointed because of conflict of interest with a witness. The issue had already been resolved and therefore was dismissed after the judge found there was no conflict.

Jessica De Leon, Herald law enforcement reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7049. You can follow her on Twitter @JDeLeon1012.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 11:38 PM with the headline "Death penalty ruling takes center stage in 2 Bradenton murder cases ."