Should Patrick McDowell die for killing Nassau deputy? Motion filed for change of venue

Almost a year to the day Patrick Rene McDowell pleaded guilty to all counts in the 2021 traffic stop shooting death of a Nassau County deputy, his defense team filed a motion for a change of venue for his upcoming sentencing phase.

"The publicity in Nassau County and all of Northeast Florida was, and continues to be, overwhelming, constant and pervasive, and its content has been uniformly negative about McDowell," the motion states. "The negative publicity has continued virtually unabated from the date of the incident to the present."

A fair and impartial jury cannot be seated in Nassau County or any other county within the 4th Judicial Circuit, the motion asserts due to the publicity. It also highlights several comments from Sheriff Bill Leeper to the media during and after the five-day manhunt for McDowell, including advising residents to shoot and kill him if they saw him.

When McDowell was eventually located wounded and hiding in a restroom at a Callahan park, he came out unarmed and complied. Law enforcement still released a K-9 dog to attack him, the motion pointed out. Residents created items for sale such as T-shirts and sweatshirts showing the attack and have a widespread presence on social media.

"I will just say that I wish he gave us an opportunity to shoot him, but he didn't," Leeper said at a news briefing after McDowell was arrested. "He crawled out like a coward."

Then after McDowell pleaded guilty, Leeper told the media, "He stuck his arm out and pulled that trigger and took a life. He was brave enough to do that, he should be brave enough to stick his arm out and take that needle of death and give up a life."

What happened to Deputy Joshua Moyers?

About 11:45 p.m. on Sept. 23, 2021, McDowell and a woman were on Sandy Ford Road when something caught Deputy Joshua Moyers' attention about the van he was driving, the Sheriff's Office said. So he activated his emergency lights to pull him over.

The woman with McDowell said he told her, "I'm not going to jail," according to court documents. He pulled over near some railroad tracks west of U.S. 301 and gave the deputy a bogus name. Once that was learned, the deputy asked McDowell to get out of the vehicle. Moyers was then shot in the face and then again after collapsing to the ground.

Moyers was 29 and engaged to be married.

What happened to Patrick McDowell?

McDowell, a troubled military veteran on drug-offender probation, was in a stolen minivan at the time. He fled briefly in the van before abandoning it and hiding under a shed with the woman. She said she convinced him to let her go, and she called 911 when she was far enough away and cooperated with deputies, according to court documents.

During the ensuing manhunt, officers and McDowell exchanged gunfire and he and a K-9 were wounded. But McDowell eluded authorities for several days.

Deputy Joshua Moyers: JSO K-9 Huk seen charging in to get suspects before being shot in new police bodycam

He contacted a friend through social media pleading for her help, but he was being monitored by investigators. Authorities stopped her before she arrived at his hideout at some ballfields, and a SWAT unit apprehended McDowell. He was suffering from two bullet wounds from the shootout during the initial search.

On March 10, 2023, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, eight counts of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and one count of use of a deadly weapon on a police K-9.

Should the death penalty be unanimous or a majority?

One of the issues attorneys are still at odds on is whether McDowell's sentence should be a unanimous vote by the 12 jurors for the death penalty or at least an 8-4 majority.

At the time of the shooting, a death sentence required a 12-0 jury recommendation. Not long after McDowell entered his guilty plea, the law changed to the majority.

During the plea hearing last March, Judge James Daniel spent several minutes making sure McDowell understood he still faces a possible death penalty. Daniel also thoroughly addressed the new legislation being considered that would do away with unanimous jury decisions being needed to recommend execution.

When is the sentencing phase for Patrick McDowell?

Jury selection is tentatively scheduled for the first week of April, although it's still being determined how many jurors will decide if McDowell, 37, should be sentenced to life in prison or death.

The defense has already scheduled several people to testify for him during the sentencing phase. Among them are his 13-year-old son, fellow Marines he served with in Iraq, friends, former security co-workers and a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doctor who evaluated him for post-traumatic stress disorder.

After McDowell's time in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps, his father said "he slipped into a darker place" in a statement to The Florida Times-Union and turned to drugs.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Patrick McDowell seeks change of venue in Deputy Joshua Moyers' death